Avengers: Rise of Graviton
by weezerz2490
Summary: When an experiment goes horribly wrong at the research facility Fury sent him to investigate, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Clint Barton finds himself having to call on friends old and new to help him take down a dangerous supervillain with power to defy the laws physics.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: I apologize in advance to any hardcore Marvel fans out there, but I've only seen the movies, so I'm basing the universe this fic takes place in off of the Marvel Cinematic universe, though I have done a little research into the comics. I hope you like it. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. The events of this story are set to take place at roughly the same time as those in _Captain America: Winter Soldier_. In my mind I have cast Nathan Fillion as Dr. Franklin Hall.

I own nothing but my OCs.

* * *

_**Chapter 1: The Big Bang**_

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** April 2014  
The Reynoldston Research Facility  
****44.7431° N, 74.4496° W**

Agent Clint Barton had to stifle a yawn. Here he was, infiltrating a private research center located just a few miles away from Reynoldston, New York, in the northern foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, which had been founded with the goal of creating new tech to help mankind in the event of another alien invasion, as one of the facility's many security guards, but he just couldn't find it in himself to get nearly half as excited as the group of scientists he was watching from above. The teleporting device they were working on was cool and all, but it felt like Fury had sort of just dumped him here to keep him busy. Things just hadn't been the same since Loki used the 'glow stick of destiny' to turn him into his personal flying monkey three years ago. They finally let him have a decent vacation after one of the agency's shrinks diagnosed him with PTSD (being possessed by a god will do that to you), but even after he was cleared to work again, Clint could tell Fury was avoiding sending him into potentially volatile situations. He might not have minded so much if it didn't mean that he was stuck here, babysitting a bunch of scientists, while Natasha got to go on all the fun missions with Cap. Normally it should have been the other way around, since she was a spy and he was a soldier…  
Clint's internal rant came to a halt when he spotted that one of the people he was supposed to be watching was staring up at him from the ground floor. The girl with blonde and pink hair smiled and gave him a friendly little wave. He smiled a little wryly as he waved back at the quirky intern from Louisiana, Alex Starr. Even though she was just an intern, he had taken special notice of her after she had surprised him by correctly guessing that he had received some form of military training (S.H.I.E.L.D.) and had seen some action after just one short elevator ride together. Even though she always seemed to be either joking around with her fellow interns or trolling Dr. Hall, the genius in charge of this particular project, Alex was very sharp, perceptive, and a hard worker. When the other interns left to grab a beer after hours, she would stay behind and double-check all their calculations and the data they collected with her mentor, Dr. Rousseau, the project's leading astrophysicist. He heard Robert Rousseau had been called in after Erik Selvig and Jane Foster both declined their invitations to come here to stay in England and study the after effects of the spatial anomalies that took place when Thor saved the world from that WoW reject. Well, that was one thing Clint could be thankful for; whatever his problems, at least he hadn't gone the same route as Dr. Selvig, who cracked and let himself caught running around without his pants by a news crew. Clint watched as one Alex's friends tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned back to face them.

"Who are you waving at?" Aaron Abrams, another intern, asked curiously.

"My elevator buddy." Alex replied matter-of-factly.

"Elevator buddy?" Aaron asked again, raising an eyebrow.

"She told us about him weeks ago, remember?" Avani Narang, the last member of what the older scientists often referred to as the 'AAA alliance', reminded him. "They take the elevator together because they usually leave at about the same time."

"Right, because Alex is a workaholic." Aaron said with a teasing smirk.

"Well, someone has to cover for your error-making butt." Alex retorted dryly. "How did you even manage to graduate from Culver without learning how to calculate a reduced Planck constant?"

"Yeah, that's basic quantum mechanics." Avani chimed in, looking extremely unimpressed. As an applied physics major, that was her bread and butter.

"Quantum mechanics isn't my specialty, okay_!_? I'm an astrophysicist!" He reminded them for the hundredth time.

"So am I." Alex reminded him.

"But you're different, Alex." Avani said, crossing her arms. "We all know Rousseau brought you in with him because you're ten times better than that dinky little BAAS you have."

"Most people don't have a brain that works at the speed of light." Aaron added with a sigh, ruffling his hair as he reined in his temper.

"You're exaggerating." Alex told him with a casual wave of her hand to dismiss the notion. "I'll settle for the speed of a particle collider."

"Everyone, quiet!" Dr. Rousseau said loudly, getting everyone's attention. "Everyone to your stations. We're about to begin."

A hush fell over the room as the scientists all sat down in front of a computer, leaving the interns to watch from the back, as an image of Hall came into view on the main monitor's screen. He was standing in front of the massive teleportation device that he and everyone in assembled below had all been working on for the past year. Because of the potential risks involved should something go wrong, it had been decided the actual device would be built and experimented on in a shielded lab that was in another part of the building. Only Dr. Hall and Dr. Winters, his acting assistant, would be allowed to remain in the lab for this part. The rest of their team would monitor his progress and record all data collected during the experiment remotely from this room. For now they just wanted to see if they could transport a physical object from one side of the room to another. They could work on increasing the distance later, once they knew whether or not it actually worked.

"I have just finished some last minute recalibrations and am ready to begin." Hall announced for their benefit as he placed the grapefruit they had decided to use in order to test the teleporter's affects on living tissue on platform A. If the fruit remained unharmed, they would move on to mice next. "Activating in three… two… one…" Hall carefully began sliding the lever that was supposed to build more power for the teleporter to rip open a small wormhole between platforms A and B.

Alex glanced up at the ceiling as the lights dimmed in the room they were in. With the amount of power they were drawing on, she wouldn't be surprised if all the lights in upstate New York had been affected.

"Ah, this is so cool!" Aaron whispered excitedly, practically squealing like a fan girl in his excitement. "Like something out of _Star Trek_!"

"If this is Star Trek, then does that make Dr. Hall and Dr. Rousseau Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock?" Avani asked, biting her nails nervously out of habit. She just hoped the damn thing wasn't going to explode or something and end up creating a gravitational singularity, which wasn't entirely an impossibility since they were basically ripping a hole in the fabric of space and time to do this…

"Personality-wise, I'd have to say Rousseau is more of a 'Kirk' than Hall. Hall is more like Spock with that cold logic and antisocial personality of his." Aaron remarked with a quiet laugh. Dr. Hall was not an easy man to get along with.

"I think Hall strikes me more as a Khan." Alex said thoughtfully. There was something about him that made her uncomfortable. He reminded her of that line from _Anger Management_: 'There are two kinds of angry people in this world: explosive and implosive. Explosive is the kind of individual you see screaming at the cashier for not taking their coupons. Implosive is the cashier who remains quiet day after day and finally shoots everyone in the store.' Hall was the cashier. He looked down on everyone and seemed to take it as a personal offense if someone said something he deemed 'unintelligent'. But this holier-than-thou attitude was why she had started making a game of trolling him to pass the time. He was gonna judge her anyway, so why not at least get a little fun out of it? It was worth it to see the look on his face on the occasions when she managed to really get him. Frankly, she was surprised he hadn't kicked her off the project. She knew probably had Rousseau to thank for that.

"Whoaaa!" They all gasped in amazement as they watched a glowing vortex begin to form on platform A over the grapefruit.

"It… It's actually working…" Avani said, stunned.

"!" Alex started when she noticed something strange on the live feed from the lab. There was a strange, blue glow of energy beginning to form across the ceiling of the lab. "Doc!" She shouted to get Rousseau's attention, pointing up at the screen.

Rousseau's eyes widened when he saw what had alarmed her. The pattern of movement was similar to St. Elmo's fire. That shouldn't be happening! If the plasma came in contact with the teleporter—

"—Shut it down!" Rousseau shouted nervously over the intercom to Hall. _"Shut it down now, Frank!"_

There was no reply. Just static.

"I don't think he can hear us!" One of the other scientists spoke up. "The radiation levels in the lab just spiked!" Even the picture on the monitor was starting to show some interference.

"Then use the landline!" Rousseau barked.

"There's no phone in that lab!"

"If he doesn't shut it down in time, it's gonna blow!" Alex said lowly, clenching her jaw, before immediately turning on her heel and dashing from the room.

Clint stood up as her friends called after her. She wouldn't…

Alex sprinted down the hall to the lab as fast as her feet could carry her. She slid the keycard she had 'borrowed' from Hall a few days prior into the scanner and shoved open the door without hesitation.

"Sh—" Before she could even get the words out, the plasma made contact with the teleporter, and the wormhole collapsed in on itself briefly before exploding in a blinding wave of energy that sent her flying back out the room with enough force to send her sliding across the floor of the hallway a quarter of the way back to the control room. Alex groaned in pain as she tried to lift herself up off the floor, only to fall. Everything around her sounded muffled except for the high-pitched whining sound ringing in her ears. Her head was killing her, and her vision was blurred. She knew there were people running towards her, but she couldn't see their faces. She blinked a couple of times, trying to focus as she felt someone kneel down and start examining her.

"Hey! Stay with me, Starr." Clint said urgently, checking her for signs of concussion, as her two friends and Rousseau came running up behind him.

"Alex!" Rousseau shouted with concern, while Avani gasped when they saw her on the floor.

"Oh my God! Is she all right_!_?" Aaron asked anxiously.

"She's a little concussed, but she'll live." Clint announced.

"She's also a little hot." Rousseau added.

"Now is not the time to get all creepy and hit on your undergrad!" Aaron snapped at the older man.

" 'Hot' as in radioactive, genius." Avani deadpanned, pointing to the device Rousseau had in his hand for measuring different types of radiation. "Is it bad?"

"The readings indicate she was hit by some kind of gravitational wave with some high-level cosmic rays mixed in. Nothing deadly, but prolonged exposure has been known to result in physical and psychological damage. She's lucky she wasn't exposed to them for very long." Rousseau explained while Clint reported the incident so they could get a containment team and a medic in.

"Hall and Winters—They're still in there!" Alex coughed weakly, feeling winded.

"In there?" Rousseau asked, furrowing his brow. "Alex, if they were in there when the teleporter blew, they—"

"I was in there too." She said urgently. "The explosion threw me back. If he ducked behind the control panel, he could still…"

"What are the radiation levels in the room like?" Clint asked Rousseau. "Can you tell from out here?"

"I can tell you that you should wait for the containment team to get here, Smith." Rousseau said, scanning the outside of the door. It must have been slammed shut by the explosion. "The radiation levels are much stronger inside the room. I can't advise going in without a suit." He backed up to stand a safer distance away. "I hate to say it, but Dr. Hall and Winters will have to wait."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: I have added links to pics of Alex and the other OCs to my profile for anyone who is interested.

I own nothing by my OCs.

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_**Chapter 2: Side Affects**_

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It took twenty minutes for the medic and containment crew to arrive. The damage was extensive. When they opened the door, they found the lab scorched and decimated by the explosion of the teleporter. Dr. Winters was dead. He had been standing too close when the teleporter blew, and it took half of him out with it. Dr. Hall had managed to duck in time to avoid sharing the same fate, but he was heavily concussed and prolonged exposure to a more intense dose of the same cosmic and gravitational radiation that Alex had been baptized in had turned his brown hair almost completely white. The facility's medics were doing the best they could for him and running every test they could think of on the unconscious man, but due to the seriousness of the condition he was in, arrangements were being made to have Hall transported to real hospital with better medical equipment. With Hall in no state to answer questions, Alex found herself the center of attention once the medics were finished with her. She twiddled her thumbs while she waited for the two security guards across from her, Clint and a mean-looking man named Ferguson, to start asking questions and tried to ignore how itchy the tape holding the gauze they had put over the small cut on her temple felt. She didn't know why security needed to talk to her after she had already recounted her side of the incident to Rousseau and company, but from the expression on Ferguson's face, she could tell she wasn't about to get a medal of honor any time soon.

"How did you get into the lab?" Ferguson asked, leaning forward in his chair while Clint quietly looked on, calmly observing the situation from his station by the door. "Everyone knows access to that room was restricted, so how was an intern like you able to get in?"

"I used one of Hall's keycards." She replied honestly.

"And how did you manage to get ahold of that?" Ferguson asked, narrowing his eyes with suspicion. "I doubt he just handed it over to you. Not only are there rules against that, but we all know the two of you don't exactly get along."

"I, uh, sort of pickpocket him when he's annoying… sometimes." She admitted a bit hesitantly with a sheepish smile.

Clint and Ferguson exchanged a glance. So, that was why Hall kept loosing his keycard…

"But I mostly just wanted to see if he would notice." Alex added quickly. "Until today, I've never actually used it. If you're thinking I did something to sabotage the experiment, then check the footage from those security cameras y'all have everywhere. I never went near that thing unsupervised."

"We'll do that, Miss Starr. But stealing another staff member's keycard isn't something we can let slide as a simple prank. I'm going to suggest you be removed from this project." Ferguson stated.

"What_!_?" Alex said incredulously. Was he serious? But it's not like she ever kept it. She might enjoy pull pranks on occasion, but she wouldn't do anything that would endanger people's lives, and she wasn't a thief. She always returned whatever she took after a couple of days. "You can't—"

"I can, and I will." Ferguson said sternly as he got up and turned to leave. "This is a serious project. We don't have time for dealing with kids who are just here to fool around."

Alex screwed her face up in an interesting mix of annoyance and incredulity, but she wisely decided to hold her tongue, knowing anything she said at this point would do more harm than good if she pissed him off right before he was about to make a complaint about her. She released the tension in her shoulders and tried to let go of the irritation she felt with a heavy sigh.

"Just because I like to have fun while I work doesn't mean I'm not taking this seriously…" She grumbled under her breath. Playing around… did he have any idea how much she had helped contribute to this project? As an intern she was doing about the same amount of work as Dr. Rousseau, but for significantly less pay. In fact, she didn't get paid at all! She glanced up at Clint. "Do I have to stay here, or am I free to go back to my own room?" She asked, causing him to pause in the doorway on his way out.

"The doctor wants to keep you here for observation for a few more hours." He replied, glancing back at her briefly before continuing on his way, closing the door behind him.

"Oh, joy." She deadpanned unenthusiastically, wishing they would just let her get back to business. She knew it was for safety reasons since she had the symptoms of very mild concussion, but it didn't change the fact that having nothing to do aside from counting the dots on the ceiling tiles was boring as hell. "1… 2…"

–∞–

Clint clicked on the next set of images of the ruined lab taken by the containment crew that had been sent in to investigate what went wrong and see what they could salvage, taking advantage of the situation to find out a little more about what was going on in this place. Accessing these files shouldn't arouse too much suspicion since his department was already investigating the incident. His sharp eyes scanned them for a moment before he minimized the window and brought up the personnel files, opening the folders for Hall, Winters, and Starr. Everything was pretty much as he had expected to find it until he pulled up Alex's info. Her credentials were all in order, but under a special note, a psych eval had been included. Her IQ and EQ were off the charts, but with a history of PTSD, major depression, and bipolar disorder the poor kid had more issues than Vogue. However, it also said that she was on medication, stable, and not a danger to others. Pickpocketing aside, he hadn't seen any evidence to contradict this, but it was obvious that Ferguson didn't trust her. Probably because, as head of security, he had known she had a history of mental illness since day one. Clint minimized that window too. He glanced around to make sure no one else was coming and plugged in a special USB drive. It looked ordinary enough, but really it was made to automatically run spyware once it was inserted that could find any suspiciously encrypted files that he might want to copy and bring back to S.H.E.I.L.D. Time to get what he came for.

–∞–

"Ugh! I can't believe they're making you leave!" Avani complained, frowning in annoyance, as she paced the room while Alex chilled on the infirmary cot, fashioning a mini glider out of a Styrofoam cup she had found in one of the unlocked cabinets. Counting the dots on the ceiling hadn't lasted very long. "This is so unfair!"

"Well, I did pickpocket the head of our project…" Alex reminded her calmly. After fuming about it for half an hour, she had decided there was really no point in being mad about it, since it was her own damn fault for not using better judgment. "To be honest, I only agreed to come in the first place was because I thought it would be less paperwork and more action, like _Stargate SG-1_. I miss that show."

"So, you're okay with being kicked off the project?" Avani asked, staring at her in disbelief. "After all the work you did?"

"No, but I'm trying to look on the bright side. I'll get over it, eventually. It sucks, but I don't wanna cause more trouble for Rousseau." She said with a shrug. "He's got enough on his plate trying to deal with that disaster down the hall. I'll miss y'all, but I'm tired of being cooped up in this strict and sterile environment when there's a beautiful nature park to the north and New York City to the south. Maybe I'll pay a visit to Coney Island before catching a plane home." She added, throwing her tiny glider into the air. They watched as it sailed through the air, curving to hit Aaron right on the tip of his nose as he entered the room bearing cokes fresh from one of the vending machines.

"I bring you cold beverages and this is the thanks I get?" He asked, looking a little chagrined, as he handed them their cokes.

"Sorry." Alex apologized with a wry smile. "It's hard to aim with those little curved wings—!" The brief moment of panic she felt when she twisted the cap off her bottle, and it began to erupt soda quickly morphed into one of surprised confusion and amazement. The silent prayer for it to stop that had flashed across her mind had apparently been granted. The fizz that should be all over her and the cot appeared to be suspended in place. The three interns stared at the strange phenomena, stunned.

"A-Are you guys… seeing this?" Aaron asked after several minutes of intense silence.

"Yeah, I'm seeing it—I'm holding it!" Alex exclaimed, keeping her eyes glued to the floating fizz. Looking more closely, she could see that it hadn't completely frozen in place. It was still falling, but at a much slower rate, as if something was affecting the pull of gravity on it. But that was impossible. It should have fallen.

And the moment she thought that, it did. The soda finished falling into her lap.

"Crap!" Alex exclaimed. Now it looked like she had wet her pants.

"That—That was amazing!" Avani squealed excitedly, finding her tongue again. "Oh my God, we have to tell the others!"

"Whoa, wait a minute." Aaron said, holding up his hands. "Tell them _what_ exactly? That we saw some coke float? For one thing, we have no evidence. This is one of the few places that doesn't have a security camera, for patient privacy. And for another, think about what it could mean for Alex!"

"Well, doesn't it mean we might be able to convince them to let her stay if she's one of only three witnesses?" Avani said, not seeing what his problem was.

"Oh, yeah, they'll let her stay all right—as a _lab rat_!" Aaron huffed indignantly, throwing his hands in the air.

"Me?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow. "You think _I _did that?" It was too incredible to believe, but the way the phenomena they just witnessed appeared to have coincided with her thoughts was a little disturbing…

"There's no way. It was just a coincidence." Avani sighed with a roll of her eyes. "You're so paranoid."

"Just because he's paranoid, doesn't mean he isn't right." Clint said, alerting them to his presence.

"Dude!" Aaron gasped, so startled that he actually jumped when he spun around and saw Clint standing in the doorway. "What are you a freakin' ninja_!_?"

"How much did you see?" Avani asked.

"More importantly, what do you mean?" Alex asked, furrowing her brow.

"Enough." Clint replied calmly. After all the things he'd seen, floating coke wasn't that much of a shocker. "And I don't recommend letting anyone else know. This place is full of ambitious scientists, and one thing I know about scientists is that they just can't help themselves when it comes to testing and probing thing they don't understand." He continued as he entered the room. "But I can take you somewhere safe."

"Somewhere safe? No offense, but with that level of stealth you're pretty suspicious yourself. That is not normal." Aaron pointed out. "Plus, you seem a little too prepared for this."

"Yeah, next you'll be telling me your name isn't 'Smith', and you work for some sort of secret government agency." Alex said.

Clint just crossed his arms and gave her a look. Close enough. He wasn't about to disclose any more information than necessary in front of the others.

"Seriously?" Alex asked. Her smile faltered when she realized he wasn't joking.

"Okay, this is crazy." Avani said, taking a step back.

"Yeah, there's no way we're letting you take her to some top-secret government facility." Aaron agreed. "That's _way _worse than a private research center. We may never see her again!"

"I second that emotion." Alex said. "I don't want to be 'disappeared', but I appreciate the offer for help, if it's sincere."

"It is." Clint assured her. "Trust me, there's nowhere safer than—" He was cut off by the ringing of his own cell. The only people who had that number knew better than to call it while he was on a mission, so whatever it was must be pretty damn important. Clint quickly pulled his phone out to see what they wanted. He had a new text from Natasha. His eyes widened as he read the coded message. It was short and to the point: S.H.I.E.L.D. was compromised, and he should keep his distance. She would contact him again if his help was needed.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked, catching the look of concern that had flashed in his eyes before he put on his pokerface.

"Change of plans." Clint said as he shoved his phone back in his pocket. He couldn't take her to S.H.I.E.L.D. yet, but she couldn't stay here. "How would you like to meet the Avengers instead?"

"_The _Avengers? As in that group of mysterious heroes and Ironman who took down an army of alien invaders during the Battle of New York and sent them packing all by themselves…?" Alex asked, blinking, as she took a second to think it over. "Um, yes, please."

"Wait, hold on. Didn't you agree to that a little too easily?" Avani asked, slightly taken aback by the sudden shift in attitude towards leaving with the suspicious stranger.

"Yeah, what are the chances this guy actually knows them? He could just be saying that to get you to go with him." Aaron said reasonably, narrowing his eyes at Clint with suspicion.

Clint sighed. One downside to Fury tracking down and getting rid of any images from the battle that showed his and Natasha's faces to protect their covert status as agents was that it meant no one ever recognized Clint when he needed them to. He pulled out his phone again and held it up to show them some photographic evidence. It was a picture of him and Natasha eating shawarma with the rest of the guys after they had arrested Loki.

"… You could have photoshopped that." Aaron insisted stubbornly, wondering who the nerdy guy in the ragged purple shirt was supposed to be. Everyone else, he sort of recognized.

"Oh, so you're that archer with the bad form and amazing aim!" Alex said as her eyes lit up with recognition upon seeing him in his Hawkeye suit. She had seen a clip of him in action that someone had posted on YouTube, but it had been from the back.

Clint grimaced slightly at her comment. He wasn't sure whether he was being insulted or complimented. It sounded like both.

"Leave me alone. I'm self-taught." He deadpanned. So what if his form was a little off? It worked for him.

"Uh, can we return to the more important topic of how bring Alex to the Avengers is supposed to help her?" Avani asked tentatively. "If Alex goes with you, what's in it for her?"

"I get to meet superheroes?" Alex said, raising an eyebrow. Who didn't want that?

"Is that why you want to go?" Avani asked, slightly chagrined that her friend didn't seem to be taking her own predicament seriously.

"That, and I actually _do_ want to know what's going on with me." Alex replied frankly. "I was kind of hoping Tony Stark might have something in his toolbox that could run some more detailed diagnostics on me. It beats possibly being locked up in a private research center or a government lab, right?"

"Point taken. Can we come too?" Aaron asked.

"No." Clint answered bluntly, nipping that idea in the bud. "It's better for you two to stay here. I'm good, but I can't sneak all three of you out." It might be a different story if Natasha was there, but she wasn't.

"Don't worry, I'll get him to autograph something for you." Alex told Aaron with a wry smile, knowing what an Ironman geek he was.

"Come on." Clint told her, heading for the door. "The sooner we leave the better." The longer Alex stayed, the greater the chance she might accidentally use her new powers in front of the wrong person.


	3. Chapter 3

I own nothing but my OCs.

* * *

_**Chapter 3: Road Trip**_

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"Hey, was it really such a good idea to let Alex leave with that guy?" Avani whispered as she and Aaron walked back to their work stations.

"It's a little late for that, isn't it?" Aaron said. "They're probably half way to New York by now."

–∞–

**Heading southbound on I-87**

"Can we stop at a gas station?" Alex asked when she spotted a sign for Saratoga Springs coming up on their right.

"Need a bathroom?" Clint asked, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.

"No, but I could use some snacks." She replied.

"You know, for someone in your situation, you're awfully relaxed." He commented dryly. She seemed completely at ease sitting in that passenger seat with her feet casually propped up on the dashboard.

"Will freaking out help me in anyway?" She asked, glancing at him.

"No."

"Didn't think so." She said, turning back to the window. "And anyway, I guess I'm still sort of in denial about the whole thing. It doesn't seem real…"

"Well, it is. And so is the danger. So no stopping unless it's to go to the bathroom." He said firmly.

"Can we at least have some music, then?"

"Yeah, sure. Help yourself."

Alex put her feet back on the floor and leaned forward to turn on the radio and pick a station, stopping when she heard the intro for _Sir Duke_.

"You're a Stevie Wonder fan?" Clint asked, a little surprised.

"My dad was. I guess he passed it on to me." She replied with a small smile. "But in think I mostly like his music because it reminds me of the good times we had together before he died."

Clint glanced at her out the corner of his eye.

"You mind me asking how?"

"… It happened during Katrina." She said, keeping her eyes on the window. "My dad was a doctor. He sent my mom and me on ahead to evacuate with my grandpa, while he stayed behind at the hospital he worked at in New Orleans as part of the skeleton crew taking care of the patients who were too sick to be moved. Unfortunately some looters tried to take advantage of the chaos of the storm and limited security and staff to raid the hospital's dispensary for drugs. My dad got in the way, and they shot him. We lost our house and most of our belongings in the storm too. Stevie's pretty much all I've got left of my dad, aside from a couple of flood-stained photographs."

"… I'm sorry." Clint said sincerely. If he remembered correctly, Hurricane Katrina happened back in '05. No wonder she had PTSD, going through all of that when she was only 15.

"Yeah… thanks." She said quietly. "Me too." They sat in relative silence while the song finished. "So… battling aliens… How was that? Must have been unnerving." Alex said eventually, deciding to speak up before it turned into a really heavy awkward silence.

"Heh. Not nearly as bad as having a god inside my head, I can tell you that." Clint responded with a derisive laugh.

"A what?" Alex asked dubiously, blinking in surprise.

"It's a long story."

"We've got time."

–∞–

**The Avengers Tower  
New York City, Manhattan**

"Cool." Alex said, shielding her eyes as she stared up at the tall tower, trying not to think about how much she needed to use the bathroom. She really shouldn't have finished that coke. "So, what now?" She asked Clint, glancing at him.

"Well, usually I would just use my key, but since I don't happen to have it on me… we should probably try ringing the bell." He replied.

"Ooh, can I do the honors?" She asked excitedly.

"Be my guest." He said with a small smile.

"So then I—" Tony was rambling on, when Bruce held up a hand. Why did it always seem to come to this every time he visited?

"Tony, stop. I've already told you, I'm not that kind of doctor." Bruce said patiently. "You really should consider getting yourself a real therapist."

"Why pay a for therapist when I can just talk to you?" Tony asked. "I think your personal experience with anger management makes you overly qualified."

"My specialty lies in the field of gamma radiation, remember?" Bruce reminded him with a pointed look.

Tony was about to counter with some witty rejoinder when the doorbell rang.

"You expecting another guest?" Bruce asked.

"No." Tony said, furrowing his brow slightly. "Who's at the door, JARVIS?"

[Agent Clint Barton and a young lady, sir.]

"You mean Agent Romanoff?" Tony asked dryly, not really in the mood to deal with S.H.I.E.L.D. at the moment. Barton was okay, but he still held a small grudge against Romanoff for spying on him, and he was fed up with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s nonsense.

[No, sir. It's someone I haven't seen before.]

Tony exchanged a curious glance with Bruce.

"Show me." Tony ordered. JARVIS brought up an image of Clint and Alex from the security camera by the front door. From the looks of the girl's colorful hair and fashion sense, she definitely wasn't a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. She was so different from what he had been expecting, that Tony decided to talk to them after all.

"Hey, Hawkeye. New girlfriend?" Stark's voice asked over the intercom.

"More like a new Avenger candidate." Barton replied matter-of-factly with a straight face, surprising the other two Avengers inside.

"Um, can I use your bathroom?" Alex blurted out urgently, not sure how much longer she could wait.

"Uh, yeah. Sure." Stark said, sounding a little bemused by her sudden request as the door clicked open. "Down the hall, third door on the left."

"Awesome. Thanks." Alex said quickly before hurrying off as fast as she could without actually running. Clint stared after her for a moment before shaking his head with a small smile and getting back to business and heading off to find Stark.

"Who did I just let in my tower?" Tony asked when Clint entered the room.

"Alex Starr." He replied, immediately taking notice that Banner was also present. "Her résumé and personnel file are on here." He explained, handing over the USB drive. "There's spyware on it, so be careful not to get hacked. The rest of information is supposed to be for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s eyes only, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't poke around too much."

"Thanks for the heads up." Tony said, suppressing a smirk. But after hearing that, there was no way he wasn't checking it out. Banner just smiled wryly and shook his head, knowing exactly what Tony was thinking.

Meanwhile, Alex had finished her business in the bathroom and was wondering through the tower in search of Clint and the others. It was a really nice place with that sleek modern look, but it also seemed like it might be really easy to get lost in if you didn't know where you were going.

"Where are they?" She wondered out loud, placing her hands on her hips.

[I believe they are currently in Lab 10 on the 30th floor. Please step into the elevator, Miss Starr, and I shall take you there directly.] A computer generated voice instructed her as the elevator doors to her left opened with a ding.

"Oh, um… Thanks, disembodied voice." Alex said with a bemused smile as she stepped inside and pressed the button for the 30th floor.

[Call me JARVIS.] It said as the doors closed and the elevator began to ascend.

"Okay, JARVIS."

She found Clint, Stark, and a third man wearing glasses waiting for her in Lab 10, just as JARVIS had said.

"Uh, hi." Alex greeted them as she entered the room and offered Stark her hand, starting to feel a little embarrassed as she recalled her first words to them. Talk about a less than stellar first impression… "Sorry about that just now. It was a long ride…"

"Don't worry about it. Hawk's already explained the situation." Tony said, shaking her hand with the hint of a smirk, deciding to go with Barton's Avenger name for now.

"Yeah, we've all been there." Bruce said sympathetically as he stepped forward to shake her hand next. "Bruce Banner."

"Oh, cool. I've read a couple of your essays on gamma radiation." She said with a smile, lighting up with excitement.

"And you understood it? Isn't your degree in astrophysics?" Tony asked, impressed.

"Mm, about 80% of it." She answered honestly. "I don't like to be confined to one school of thought. I think it's important to be well-rounded. By the way," she said, turning to Clint, "why did he just call you 'Hawk'?"

"My codename and Avengers name is 'Hawkeye'." Clint explained nonchalantly.

"Oh. Nice. You should market that." She advised.

"She's right. Aside from us, no one really knows who you and Widow are." Tony agreed as he moved to stand next to a machine that resembled an open MRI machine, though it was a bit more complicated than that. It was nice to know they'd be increasing their brain trust if she joined. "You mind hopping up onto the examination table so we can run a few painless diagnostics?"

"Who's Widow?" Alex asked curiously, doing as Tony asked and laid back on the table under the scanner. "Is she the redhead in the black jumpsuit?"

"Yeah, that's her." Bruce said. "She's called the 'Black Widow'."

"Cool. You've gotta respect a woman who can kick butt and look sexy while doing it." Alex remarked appreciatively, earning an amused smile and a raised eyebrow from Hawkeye.

She and Nat would definitely get along.

"That your type?" Tony asked with a wry smirk, glancing away from the monitor to look at Alex.

"Well, she's probably my favorite Avenger, but I'm pretty sure I'm straight."

"Pretty sure?" Clint asked.

"You can be straight and still have the occasional girl crush, right?" She asked.

"Pretty sure that's called being 'bi'." Tony said as something beeped. "Hello. Wow, looks like you were right to bring her here." He told Clint sliding the window for the preliminary scans over so that he and Bruce could see the unusual readings for themselves.

"This is amazing…" Bruce said when he saw the data.

"What is? What are we looking at?" Clint asked.

"You see those numbers and the energy signature here?" Bruce asked, using his glasses as a pointer. "According to this data, there's some kind of gravitational shield around her."

"The gravity around her is in flux." Tony added, bring up another screen that had a meter that was constantly making minute shifts back and forth between several slightly different measurements of _ɡ_'s.

"Wait, hold on." Alex said abruptly, stopping them before they could get too excited. "I kind of guessed gravity might be in flux around me after that thing with the coke, but don't you need anti-gravitons in order to create gravitational shielding? I thought those were only theoretical."

"Not anymore." Tony quipped. "Obviously they do exist, because you've got them. And try not to move so much. It messes up the results."

"Okay, question." Clint said, getting their attention. "What are anti-gravitons?"

"A graviton is a hypothetical particle that 'transfers' gravitation's force from the classical field based on Einstein's Theory of Relativity to something more workable for quantum mechanics. Gravitons have never been observed, directly or indirectly, but there have been several theories that use gravitons to explain certain phenomena. For example, a theory that describes black holes by combining quantum mechanics and gravity, that has been advanced by Georgi Dvali and Cesar Gomez, which suggests a black hole is 'an overpacked bucket of gravitons'. An anti-graviton is basically a hypothetical particle that does the exact opposite and can theoretically produce a state of antigravity." Alex explained matter-of-factly.

"Oh, of course it is." Clint said, still feeling a little lost since he wasn't a physics expert, but he seemed to understand the gist of it.

"But anyway, other than having become an existence that could redefine the laws of physics and some really low traces of gravitational and cosmic radiation, you seem perfectly healthy." Tony said glibly. "Look at that muscle definition. She's got the body of a gymnast."

"Thanks. I used to do gymnastics up until I graduated high school. I've tried to stay in shape, but given that I've been stuck in research center with an inadequate gym for the past several months, I'm afraid my conditioning isn't as good as it used to be." Alex confessed, looking slightly chagrined at the idea of having slipped.

"In other words, you actually are a gymnast." Bruce said. "Nice."

"That will definitely come in handy." Clint commented. "I don't suppose you happen to have any self-defense training?"

"Not really." She admitted with a sigh of regret. She should probably work on that. "But I do have a taser." She added on a brighter note.

"Well, aren't you prepared." Tony remarked with a wry smile.

"Yeah, I mostly got it to placate my mom. She nearly had kittens when I told her I was going to New York. Thinking about the whole alien invasion thing kind of makes her nervous."

"She's not exactly alone on that one…" Bruce muttered with a glance at Tony, who shot him a look in return.

"If you're having issues with PTSD or anxiety, I know a really good psychologist." Alex offered without judgment, picking up on their little exchange. "She's in Louisiana, though."

"Thanks, but—" Tony started to say, when Banner cut him off.

"Do you have a card?" Bruce asked eagerly. Tony could more than afford the occasional flight down south. Anything to get him off the hook of playing grief counselor. No offense, but he had enough on his plate dealing with the other guy without having to worry about Tony's issues on top of everything else.

"Not on me, but I can give you her office number." Alex replied helpfully.

"Whatever. Can we get back to 'gravity girl' here?" Tony said dismissively, dodging the subject. "There's a few more tests I'd like to run. I want to know if she can actually control whatever is happening to her."

"Yeah. That might be a good idea." Clint agreed.

One 'test' turned out to be having Alex stand on a scale and try to manipulate her weight, and after roughly twenty minutes of trial and error, she found that she could make herself both 'lighter' and 'heavier'.

"Oh, this is so awesome!" She clapped with excitement. "Do you know what this means?"

"It means you can appear to defy the laws of physics by manipulating gravitons and anti-gravitons at will?" Banner suggested.

"That, _and_ I can eat whatever I want and never weigh more than 127lbs." She stated confidently with a smirk.

"Of course, you do realize that whatever the scale says," Tony chimed in, "if you eat like crap, you'll still look like—"

"Okay, stop." Alex said quickly. "I'm inside my awesome bubble right now, and you're not allowed to burst it." She stated firmly in a no-nonsense tone.

"Awesome bubble?" Tony asked.

"Yes." She replied coolly. "You should try it sometime. It's nice."

"In case you haven't noticed, she's a little 'unique'." Clint whispered.

"Right." Tony said. If by 'unique' he meant 'weird', then Tony was definitely starting to see that. "Anyway, moving on to the next test…" He led them down into the gym. "Pick that up." He instructed Alex, pointing to a 50lb weight. "With one hand."

Alex leaned down and gripped the weight with one hand, pausing to do some quick calculations in her head before sliding it off the rack and holding the weight up between two fingers as if it was merely made of hollow piece of plastic.

"You mean like this?" She asked smartly. She was really starting to get the hang of this.

"Okay, now you're just showing off." Tony said.

"Now you know how we feel." Bruce said, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

"I was a little nervous at first, but now I think I'm starting to like this power." Alex said with a smile and a shrug. "There's a lot of math involved, which I'm not too thrilled about, but other than that it's kind of cool and fun."

"Wait, so you hate math?" Bruce asked, taken aback. "Then why choose become a physicist?"

"I don't really _hate_ math… I'm just not necessarily thrilled about its existence." She clarified. "As for why I chose astrophysics—"

"Uh, hold that thought." Tony interrupted her when his phone buzzed in his pocket, alerting him to the fact that his decryption program had just finished cracking the rest of the files on that were on the USB. "Time to drag the skeletons out of the closet." He announced, scrolling through the data being streamed to his phone.

"You copied those encrypted files and hacked them after I distinctly asked you _not _to, didn't you?" Clint asked, clearly chagrined.

"He does that." Bruce said with a sympathetic smile.

"I had a feeling something like this might happen." Clint admitted with a sigh. "But with S.H.I.E.L.D. compromised at the moment, this was the safest place I could think of, and beggars can't be choosers."

"Hold on, what files?" Alex asked, setting the weight down so she wouldn't accidentally drop it on her toes. One of the previous tests had revealed that she could only affect the gravity of other things that she was in direct contact with. Once she let go, the effects wore off almost instantaneously. " Did you steal our research? I thought you worked for some kind of special homeland security department."

"I didn't, and I do." Clint replied patiently. "We are interested in the technology being developed at the research center, but the main priority of my mission was to investigate the validity of a rumor that the facility might have a connection to known terrorists."

"What? That's ridiculous!" Alex said, feeling offended on behalf of everyone she knew that worked there. "We've all got our little quirks, but there's nothing criminal going on in there."

"Don't be so sure." Tony said grimly when he came across some disturbing information in one of the files. "A.I.M. is involved."

"What?" Alex and Bruce asked at the same time.

"I thought Killian was dead." Bruce said. He had heard the story enough times from Tony.

"I thought they were shut down after it came out they were involved with the Mandarin bombings." Alex added. It had been all over the news.

"Only publicly." Clint stated a bit ominously, causing them all to glance at him. "This is why Fury sent me in. They're the terrorist group I was talking about. The company may have been liquidated, but a section of the organization still exists as a rogue criminal element."

"And you were going to tell me this when?" Tony asked pointedly, annoyed to learn the latest in a long of important things Fury had neglected to inform him of.

"When it became relevant, which it just did." Clint replied smoothly. "Any idea how many A.I.M. agents are involved?"

"Just one, as far as I can tell." Tony said a bit grudgingly, deciding to let it go for now. They had bigger, more urgent fish to fry. "The encrypted files all originated from the same point of origin before being hidden on the main server. The personal computer of a Dr. Albert Winters, and one of the files indicates that the accident you told us about… wasn't an accident at all."

"Winters?" Alex asked as her eyes widened slightly in shock.

"Winters is dead. He died in the explosion." Clint said, furrowing his brow. Something didn't feel right about it, though. Something didn't add up…

"No, I don't think it was Winters…" Alex said thoughtfully, also furrowing her brow. "If he knew it was going to explode, why didn't he duck? Hall didn't know, and he managed to—!" She slammed her hands on the counter. "Hall ducked!"

"Isn't that because you warned him?" Clint asked.

"No, I never got the chance because the explosion knocked me back out of the room, but Hall was already ducking before I even opened the door—_he_ _knew_!"

"I see." Clint said thoughtfully. "As head of the project, Hall has access to everything. He probably just used Winters' computer to cover his tracks."

"Wait, if this Dr. Hall was the one who started this teleporter project, then why would he want to blow it up?" Bruce asked reasonably.

"Because he wasn't building a teleporter." Tony said, surprising them all, as he held up his phone so they could see the schematics he had just found. "He lied to everyone. He's been going behind your backs and rigging the data to show you what he wanted you to see. Hall got what he wanted." He said gravely, looking pointedly at Alex.

"Alex?" Clint asked as he and Bruce followed his gaze. "You mean… what's happening to her… _This_ is what Hall wanted?"

"I don't think he meant for it to happen to _her_, but yes." Tony said, frowning. "I think Hall was trying to give himself superpowers."

"Uh, guys… I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but… Barton, didn't you say Hall endured an even longer period of exposure than Alex?"

"Crap." Alex said aloud, echoing the others' thoughts. If he was part of an evil, criminal organization, they hated to think of what a man like Hall would do with his powers once he realized he had succeeded.

"If he is stronger than Alex, then who knows what he'll be capable of once he wakes up." Bruce said grimly.

"We've got to do something before he regains consciousness." Clint agreed.

"Time to suit up." Tony declared.

–∞–

**Alice Hyde Medical Center,  
13.5 miles from the Reynoldston Research Facility**

The slow, steady rhythmic beeping of the EKG hooked up to the unconscious Dr. Franklin Hall speeded up half a beat as his eyes began to shift beneath their closed lids. A moment later, his eyes fluttered open.

"Thank goodness." He heard a female voice exclaim. The next thing he knew, a nurse was hovering over him. "He's finally awake." She said with a smile.


	4. Chapter 4

I own nothing but my OCs.

* * *

_**Chapter 4: The Awakening**_

* * *

Hall sat propped up in his hospital bed, sipping some water while he waited for the doctor to come examine him. He was a little sore, but other than that, he was in pretty good shape considering what he had been through. He reached out to set his cup of water on one of those rolling tables they keep near all the beds, but it was too far away, and in an uncharacteristic show of clumsiness, he ended up dropping the cup. He immediately reached out to catch it and missed, but then something incredible happened. The cup and water never hit the ground. They were just floating in mid air, suspended inside the small gravitational field that he had just instinctively generated. Hall's eyes widened slightly. Carefully, he focused on maintaining the field while he grabbed the cup with his other hand and used it to scoop up all of the suspended water before releasing it. Hall smirked as he examined the cup of water in his hand. What else was he capable of now? Before he could attempt to find out, the doctor and nurse who were attending him entered the room.

"How are you feeling, Dr. Hall?" The doctor asked, taking a seat beside him.

"Never better." Hall replied, suppressing his smirk.

–∞–

**The Avengers Tower  
New York City, Manhattan**

"Whoa, hold on. Y'all are _not_ leaving me behind." Alex insisted stubbornly as she followed the guys into the Quinjet hangar. Her taser was now out of her purse and clipped onto her belt, just in case.

"You'll be safer here." Hawkeye said firmly, making a beeline for the pilot's seat. He secured his quiver and bow next to his seat before strapping in. "You said it yourself, you don't have any fighting experience. It's too dangerous."

"He's right." Tony said when she opened her mouth to protest. "If Hall has more power than you—"

"Look, I know I'm knew to this whole 'superhero' thing, and you think a noob like me will just get in your way, but I have friends in there!" She shouted earnestly, giving them all pause. "At least let me help with getting them to safety. I can't just sit back and watch while people I care about are in danger, not again." She didn't ever want to have to experience the same pain and regret she felt while helplessly watching the devastation from Katrina and losing her father without being able to do a thing for him. She was done with that!

Tony and Clint stared at her, transfixed by the fierce determination burning in her eyes. They recognized that look. They had seen it enough times in the mirror. It was the look of a fellow survivor, someone who had been damaged and fought hard to build themselves back up again…

"All right." Clint said. He didn't want her in danger, but he knew how she felt. "You can come. But only to help evacuate the civilians."

"You sure about this?" Tony asked him.

"No, but look at her. If we try to leave without her, she's more likely to grab onto one of the wings than let us leave her behind." Clint pointed out with a sigh as he turned to face the controls again and began prepping the engine.

"Besides," Bruce said, deciding to speak up in Alex's defense, "we don't know what Hall is capable of, but we don't know her upper limits either. If he can control gravity, you may end up needing her to you know, fight fire with fire."

"Okay, fair enough." Tony agreed. "If you're coming, get on and strap in." he told Alex.

She didn't need to be told twice. Alex quickly hopped on board, but paused halfway to her seat to glance back at Banner, who still hadn't made a move to get on.

"You're not coming?" She asked. "Don't you turn into that big green guy?"

"Oh, so you recognized which one I was, huh?" Bruce asked with a wan laugh.

"Well, process of elimination…" She admitted. He had been in the picture Clint had showed her before of him with all the Avengers, and even though the big green guy wasn't in it, Banner was.

"Heh. Yeah, I'm the Hulk, or at least I am when the other guy comes out. And that's exactly why I'm going to sit this one out." Bruce said, taking a step back. "You let the Hulk loose in that research facility, and there probably won't be anything left to save. He's worse than a bull in a china shop."

"That's too bad." Alex said. "We could probably use the muscle." If the Hulk was that strong, he would probably be able to withstand intense shifts in gravity better a regular human.

"Come on, Alex. Time to go." Clint told her, ready to take off.

"Have fun, you crazy kids!" Bruce called after them as the back of the jet closed, and Hawkeye rolled her down the landing strip to take off. He watched the Quinjet soar off into the blue before heading back inside. He had a feeling the evening news report was about to become a lot more interesting.

–∞–

**The Reynoldston Research Facility  
44.7431° N, 74.4496° W**

Hall paid his cab fee and flashed his ID at the guard outside the fence to be let in. It was more of a formality than anything. They all knew who he was. None of the guards at the other checkpoints bothered to stop him either. They had been expecting him since he had called ahead from the hospital to inform his coworkers of his return. He had to suppress a smirk as he reached the front doors.

Dr. Rousseau and Ferguson had come out to meet him personally, ready to welcome him back.

'The prodigal son returns…' Hall thought to himself with the hint of an amused smirk. These fools had no idea what they were in for.

"Gentlemen." He greeted them.

"Welcome back, sir." Ferguson said dutifully with a respectful nod.

"Has there been another incident?" Hall asked. "There seem to be more guards on duty than usual."

"That intern, Starr, rabbited after I confronted her about stealing one of your keycards. We still haven't been able to determine the source of the malfunction that caused the teleporter to explode, but in my opinion it's becoming more and more likely that the 'accident' was the result of sabotage." Ferguson explained seriously.

"What? Don't tell me you seriously think _Alex _is responsible?" Rousseau asked incredulously. "She make like to play around on occasion, but she knows when to get serious, and she'd never do something that could endanger peoples' lives."

"That girl is dangerous, Dr. Rousseau." Ferguson retorted with a scowl. "You knew she was crazy, and you brought her in anyway. Now, I suggest you—"

"—Just because she has a mental illness doesn't mean she's an unstable psychopath, you prejudiced and ignorant ass!" Rousseau snapped angrily, turning red in the face as a vein throbbed in his neck. This was why he had wanted to bring Alex in, because he wanted to give her an opportunity to prove how brilliant she was as a professional in the field, but even after all of the amazing work she had done on this project, people were still trying to burn her with that stigma. It made him sick.

"Calm down, Robert." Hall said patiently, though the temptation to bang the other two men's heads together was strong. "I'm sure Starr, as troublesome as she is, had nothing to do with the explosion. She isn't that smart."

Rousseau was inclined to disagree, but pointing out that she _was _intelligent enough to know how to sabotage the project wasn't going to help prove her innocence to Ferguson.  
Wait. Did Hall just defend her? Had pigs started flying?

"Are you sure you're all right to work?" Dr. Rousseau asked, shooting the normally uncharitable man a look of concern. He was still surprised the hospital had released Hall so quickly, given that he had lost consciousness for several hours after being caught up in an explosion of cosmic and gravitational radiation. "After what you've been through—"

"I am fine, Dr. Rousseau." Hall snapped a bit testily. "Really."

"Yes, I can see that." Dr. Rousseau commented dryly. Increased irritability in others after a head injury might be a cause for worry, but this level of curtness was normal for Hall. It was a shame the doctors hadn't gone in and pulled the stick out of his ass while they were at it. "In that case, we'll leave you to it."

"Yes, that would be much appreciated." Hall said, lengthening his strides to pull ahead of them. "I'll be in my office."

"Avani, look!" Aaron whisper-yelled, tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention when he spotted Hall stalking towards his private office through the main workroom. "It's Hall!"

"No way! He really came back?" She asked, straining her neck to see over her computer's monitor without actually standing up. "I can't believe they let him out of the hospital so soon… I mean, his hair turned _white_. Shouldn't they be still be holding him for observation and running all sorts of tests to make sure there aren't going to be any other side-effects?"

"I told you that man's the devil." Aaron said glumly. "Nothing can take him down." He was glad no one else had died, but he wouldn't have minded a few more Hall-free days… And he already missed Alex. It wasn't as much fun without her around.

Meanwhile, the moment Hall stepped into his office, he sat down behind his computer and began hacking into the facility's mainframe, overriding security and locking all other users out of the system. Ever since his near death experience, he felt more alive than ever. Nothing could stop him now. He was sick of this place and the people in it. All of these so-called brilliant scientists gathered, and none of them had enough brain cells to see through his ruse. They were all so uninspiringly dull that it made him homicidal. And don't even get him started on that Starr girl! The way she was always challenging him, as if they were equals—quite frankly, he was amazed he hadn't stabbed the insufferable brat with a pen yet. But he wasn't going to put up with it anymore. It was time to show these fools who they were dealing with. This research facility would be the testing grounds for his new powers. His only regret was that Starr wouldn't be there so he could finally give her a little… _discipline_. He smirked wickedly as he entered a new line of code and hit 'enter'.

Let the games begin.

"Wha—Hey_!_?" Avani exclaimed when her computer's screen suddenly went dark, and shut itself down. "Okay, what did you touch?" She demanded, narrowing her eyes accusingly at Aaron.

"Whoa, what? How is this my fault?" He asked, somewhat offended that she would jump to that conclusions so quickly. He wasn't _that_ incompetent! "In case you haven't noticed, the same thing is happening to every computer in the room!"

"What? But how?" She asked as she stood up to get a better look. Aaron was right. "Is it some kind of virus? Are we being hacked_!_?" And then, all of the doors automatically shut and locked themselves. "Oh my God, are we under attack_!_? Is it terrorists_!_?" She asked, staring to hyperventilate.

"Breathe, Avani! Breathe!" Aaron said urgently, pulling her inhaler out of her purse for her. She accepted it gratefully, relieved when breathing in the medicine helped to relax her throat before her panic could set off a full-fledged asthma attack. "Th-Thanks…"

"Yeah, no prob—" Aaron was cut off when a familiar voice began speaking over the intercom.

"Ladies and gentlemen, by now I'm those of you with even the most limited intelligence have realized that the entire facility has entered 'lockdown' mode. All outside communication has also been cut off." Hall's voice announced smugly. Even Security's systems were down. The only one still able to monitor the situation was Hall himself.

Aaron immediately glanced around and saw that everyone who was close to a landline was already trying to make a call, but judging from the expressions on their faces, they weren't having any success. He quickly checked his cell. No signal.

"All contact between different departments has also been cut off." Hall added. Avani began to hyperventilate again. "This facility is now completely under my control. Do exactly as I say, and you may live through this."

"It's all right, Avani. Stay calm. I'll get you out of here." Aaron said determinedly, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze, before leaving her to carefully making his way over to pull the fire alarm. "Ungh!" Aaron grunted in pain when his entire body slammed harshly to the floor. He looked up to see Hall looming over him with one hand outstretched. Aaron furrowed his brow in confusion. What the… did Hall just hit him? He thought Hall had still been in his office, but obviously that had changed. Aaron grit his teeth and tried to get back on his feet, but no matter how hard he struggled, he remained pinned to the floor. It was as if…

Aaron's eyes widened as he managed to look up out the corner of his eyes again at Hall's hand.

_No… It couldn't be…!_!

"Resistance is futile, Mr. Abrams." Hall stated mockingly. Even though he was no longer in his office, his voice was still being transmitted over the intercom via the Bluetooth device clipped over his ear. "You see, I now control gravity itself!" The mad scientist declared with a manic gleam in his eye.

Avani's eyes widened as Aaron's fears were confirmed. He was just like Alex, only decidedly more homicidal. Avani was trembling with anxiety, ready to have a nervous break down, but she took a deep breath and willed herself to stay calm enough to duck back behind her desk, while several of their coworkers cried out in fear, and make a phone call using her converted iphone. She was never more glad that her overprotective father had it turned into a satellite phone before she started this job. It was the only phone left in the building that could still reach the outside, and she knew she would probably get only one chance… She had better make it count.


	5. Chapter 5

I own nothing but my OCs.

* * *

_**Chapter 5: Force of Nature**_

* * *

The Pink Panther's theme song began playing inside the Quinjet just as the research facility entered Hawkeye's line of sight. Tony first glanced to the side at Clint and then back at Alex, who was now hastily digging her cell phone out of her pants pocket.

"Sorry, I thought I had it on…" She began to apologize, only to trail off when she saw the caller's name. "It's Avani."

"Who?" Tony asked.

"One of her friends from the research center." Clint explained.

"Yes." Alex said a bit distractedly, furrowing her brow slightly. "And it's a video call…" Avani never made video calls when she could text. Something serious must have happened. She quickly answered the phone. Her eyes widened when she saw what was going on. Avani was obviously hiding while holding her phone out just enough to capture Hall on camera. "Oh, shit."

Aaron grunted in pain under gravity's increased pull on him. Alex winced. She could hear several of his joints pop out of place from the force. Behind Hall, Dr. Rousseau began cautiously sneaking up on their crazed coworker with a stealth that was surprising for a man of his weight, but it wasn't enough. Hall seemed to know what he was doing without looking. He raised his other hand and shot some kind of concentrated gravitational field at Rousseau, knocking him flat on his back.

[Don't try be a hero.] Hall's voice echoed coldly from her phone's speaker. [It will only get you killed.]

"Please tell me it's not as bad as it sounds…" Tony asked, a little disturbed when he heard a scream come from her phone.

"It's worse." Alex said grimly, holding her phone up for him to see. "Not only is Hall is there, but he definitely appears to be more powerful than me. He's taken hostages, and he's using said power to terrorize them."

Clint stole a quick glance too in time to see Hall slam a slim man in a white coat into a wall. Hall didn't even have to touch someone to affect them.

On screen, Hall turned his head and seemed to be looking directly into the camera for a split moment before the phone was quickly lowered, and the call ended abruptly. Avani had hung up and slid the phone away from her, under the row of connected desks so it wouldn't be found on her.

"Crap. He'd better not hurt Avani too." Alex said, tightening her grip on her own phone.

"Well, we do have one advantage." Clint said, causing the others to glance at him, as he began landing the Quinjet a short distance away from the building in the cover of a clearing in the woods rather than on the helicopter pad. They were only fifty yards away from the research facility, but had enough cover to be hidden from the outside security cameras. "He doesn't know_ we're_ coming." Avani had been smart to call Alex instead of the police. If Hall checked her call history, he would only see that she had been scared and called a friend, which would make him think he had more time.

"I'll get Hall." Tony said, opening the back hatch of the Quinjet and taking off without hesitation. "You guys get the rest of the people out of the building." They heard him finish through their earpieces. Alex stared after him in stunned astonishment.

"Did he just—"

"Yeah, I hear he does that a lot." Clint said calmly, also slightly chagrined that Stark had just taken off without making a better plan. Did he even know what part of the building Hall was in? "Stark, I'm sending you information on the building's layout and Hall's approximate location." He announced through his earpiece, sending the info via a link from the Quinjet computers to Tony's helmet.

"Hmm. That helps." Tony mused when the blueprints popped up on his display with a red dot indicating the room Hall should be in based on the background from the video call. He made some slight adjustments to his course, climbing up higher so he could do a swan dive through a glass skylight and pulled up about a foot before hitting the floor to shoot through some glass doors and clothesline Hall to the floor in one swift motion before he could even touch Avani.

"Stand down, before I put you down." Tony commanded Hall sternly, aiming one of his repulsors at him as he stood over the fallen scientist.

Hall glared up at Ironman furiously from the floor as he wiped the blood from his nose. He threw his hand out in front of him, blasting Tony with a gravitational wave strong enough to send him flying back. Realizing the danger if Hall gained the upper hand, Tony immediately fired his repulsors at Hall, but the attack was stopped and absorbed by a spherical gravitational shield. A devious smirk played on Hall's lips when he saw that the shield he generated had worked.

"Uh, guys, I think we may need a plan B…" Tony's voice sounded again in Clint and Alex's ears just as they reached the gate. "How's freeing the rest of the hostages going?"

"Working on it." Alex responded, keeping out of sight behind the wall while Clint tried to open the gate. It wouldn't budge, and his keycard was being denied.

"Looks like the entire building is on lockdown." Clint said, taking a few steps back. His bow clicked open as he selected a grappling arrow from his quiver and fired. The grappling hook landed securely at the top of the wall. So much for their plan to stroll right in using the story that Clint had apprehended Alex on the run and brought her back for further questioning. "I'll go first and make sure it's clear." He told her, taking hold of the rope to climb.

"Hey, Tony, we're on our way, but until then, try to stay out Hall's range." Alex advised Ironman while she watched Clint quickly and quietly scale the wall, waiting for her turn. "It look like he was using a strong gravitational field to subdue Aaron, if you get caught in one of those, it'll probably be nearly impossible to escape."

"Little late for that!" Tony replied with a grunt when he suddenly slammed face first into the floor. It was a good thing his suit was made to take a pounding, because he had hit that concrete floor with enough force to make a shallow Ironman-shaped crater in it. He couldn't even move his arms enough to get into a position to push himself up. He tried his thrusters, but he remained glued to the floor.

[Personal gravity increased by 1500%, sir.] JARVIS announced [We would lose power before reaching a force equal to current gravitational pull.]

"Any other suggestions, JARVIS?" Tony asked a little acerbically, feeling chagrined.

[None that are physically possible.]

"Damn it! All right, I'm stuck." He told Alex. "Any bright ideas?" Her degree in astrophysics had to be good for something, right?

"Uh… do your best to placate Hall's ego till we get there?" She suggested with an audible shrug in her voice. "He's a narcissistic prick with a god complex on a power trip. Don't contradict him, or it might set him off and make things worse. Let him think he's got the upper hand."

Tony deadpanned. Well, that shouldn't be too hard, considering Hall _did_ have the upper hand…

"Yeah, great. Thanks, Dr. Phil." Tony quipped sarcastically. Easier said than done.

Alex could tell from his tone that hadn't exactly been the kind of advice he had been hoping to hear, but his comment reminded her of something important.

"I've got an idea." She stated aloud.

Clint paused at the top of the wall and looked down in time to see that she was backing away from the wall with an intense look of concentration on her face that was similar to the one Nat usually had whenever she was about to try something incredibly dangerous. He did not like where this was going, but before he even had a chance to open his mouth, Alex took off like shot towards the wall, changing her center of gravity and level of anti-gravitons as she jumped in order to enable herself to run up the wall.

"Cover me." She breathed as she passed him, swinging herself up and over the top in one fluid motion.

Clint watched in amazement as she landed lightly on her feet in a crouching position before launching herself forward in a sprint, making a beeline for the building's front doors.

"Damn it." He cursed under his breath, quickly swinging himself up to perch on top of the wall in a crouching position to free his hands, so he could draw another arrow, when the guards stationed outside panicked and moved to intercept her with their guns drawn. Before any of them could get a shot off, Hawkeye fired six tranq arrows, taking them all down. As Alex drew closer to the glass doors, He drew another arrow and fired. It flew past her head, hit the door, and shattered it with a sonic pulse. The broken glass safely cascaded straight down to the ground seconds before she reached it. Without hesitation, Alex ran right on through and pulled the fire alarm. With that done, she leaned back against the wall and took a few moments to catch her breath while Clint finished coming over the wall and jogged over to meet her.

"Sorry for pulling a Tony on you like that, but time's against us here." She said in between breaths. Man, she really needed to start exercising more again. "You're probably wondering why I went through all that just to pull the alarm, but in a few minutes—"

"—It will finish overriding the lockdown and open all of the windows and doors." Clint finished for her. Alex blinked and stared at him for a moment before straightening up.

"I see, so you knew about the little subroutine Aaron added in…" She said tentatively. He and Avani had already been working at the for facility several months before she was brought in, so this particular peradventure predated Alex, but she had known about it because Aaron had told her about it after they became friends and formed the AAA alliance. Apparently Avani was claustrophobic, because the thought of possibly being trapped during a lockdown nearly sent her into a panic attack, so in order to calm her down, Aaron hacked into the security system and added in a hidden subroutine that would override the lock down so she wouldn't have to feel so caged. He'd probably never admit it out loud, but Aaron was totally in love with Avani.

"I stumbled across it during a preliminary investigation into the competency of the facility's security system." Clint admitted with a shrug as they heard the lock on the remaining half of the two front doors click open. "I decided to leave it in, on the off chance I might need to make a quick escape."

"Oh. Nice." Alex said with a wry smile.

"But don't do that again." He added sternly. "You could've gotten yourself shot pulling a stunt like that. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I didn't need to worry since you had my back." She replied frankly, as if it should have been obvious. "You're an Avenger. I knew you could handle it." In the clip she had seen of him fighting during the Battle of New York, he had fired a total of six arrows in the amount of time it took a normal person to fire a bullet. She noted that he seemed a little surprised by her answer, but he quickly recovered.

"Thanks." Clint said with the hint of a smile. "But I'm still not letting you come with me." He wasn't willing to try fighting 'fire with fire' just yet. Hall was much more powerful than they had anticipated. There was no guarantee her powers would be enough to protect her, so there was a big chance bringing Alex in with him would just put her in unnecessary danger. And crowd control was important. A lot of these people knew Alex, and seeing a friendly face take charge should help calm them down enough to keep them from trampling each other.

Traces of a pout played on Alex's lips as she narrowed her eyes slightly and stared at him for a couple seconds before giving in.

"Oh, all right." She agreed reluctantly with a roll of her eyes as the first of many confused and frightened people began to trickle out of the building. Arguing about it was a waste time, and Tony was still waiting for backup. It was better for everyone if she just did what he asked. For now.

"Glad we're on the same page." Clint said, nodding in approval, before taking off to find Tony and Hall.

"Hawkeye!" Alex called out, stopping him before he could get too far. "be careful. Tony has his armor to protect him, but don't underestimate the danger of Hall's powers. Human tolerances depend on the magnitude of the g-force, the length of time it is applied, the direction it acts, the location of application, and the posture of the body. A hard slap on the face may briefly impose hundreds of _ɡ_locally without producing any real damage, but a constant 16_ɡ_ for over a minute can be deadly. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this, but your best chance is to keep your distance." She stated gravely, not wanting him to get hurt.

"Don't worry." Clint said coolly as he turned his back to her again, giving her a full view of his quiver and arrows as he pressed forward. "That's what these are for."


	6. Chapter 6

I own nothing but my OCs.

* * *

_**Chapter 6: Graviton**_

* * *

"Stay where you are!" Hall's voice boomed commandingly when the doors slid open, sending those who had tried to make a run for it crashing into the desks before they could escape.

"Dr. Hall, why not let them go?" Tony asked carefully, redirecting the mad scientist's attention onto himself. "You've already got an _Avenger_ at your mercy. If it's a hostage you want, then use me instead."

"Heh!" Hall let out derisive snort. "You aren't in any position to be giving _me_ orders, Mr. Stark. I am no longer simply Dr. Hall, a mere human. I am…" His gravitational shield flickered back into view for a moment when it was hit by a tranq arrow aimed directly at his shoulder. Hall and Tony watched the arrow fall uselessly to the ground before glancing over to see Clint standing out in the hallway.

'Well, crap…' Clint thought. He hadn't been expecting some kind of energy barrier. He grabbed an explosive arrow and tried again. Hall simply smirked and increased the arrow's gravity so that it dropped straight down to the floor before even getting as far as his shield this time. Clint clenched his jaw.

"Now this is just getting sad." Hall stated mockingly. Did this man seriously believe he could defeat him with a weapon that dated back to the Paleolithic era? "And if you think you're safe from me at that distance, then you're wrong!" He added with a devious grin as he began gradually increasing Clint's gravity to 12_g_, forcing the archer to his knees, and then onto all fours. Hall didn't want to kill either Avenger just yet. There was something he wanted them to see first.

Clint fought hard not to let himself be pulled down, stubbornly trying to preserve at least an iota of his dignity, but he was fighting a losing battle. He could tell Hall was toying with him, and it really pissed him off. But more importantly, what were they supposed to do now?

"Ahem. As I was saying…" Hall continued smugly. "I am no longer 'Dr. Franklin Hall'. From now on, you will address me as 'Graviton', for I have become gravity personified!" He declared grandly, raising both of his hands to the sky.

"!" Tony and Clint were startled when a shudder ran through the entire building, from the foundation up.

–∞–

"All right, everyone, good job! It's all right. Keep calm, you're almost out." Alex called out reassuringly, helping some of the more friendly security guards who had already come out count heads as people came out. She hadn't seen anyone from her project's team yet, and that worried her. "!" Alex was startled when someone grabbed her arm roughly, and she immediately whipped her head around to find herself face to face with Ferguson.

"You're involved in this somehow, aren't you_!_?" He demanded. "I knew it! The criminal always returns to the scene of the crime!"

Alex deadpanned. Not this crap again.

"Look here, you stupid sonavabitch." She said firmly, yanking her arm free so she could grab the man by the front of his shirt, decreasing his gravity enough to feign super-strength and lift him so that his feet were about two or three inches off the ground. "I'm here to help, so you can either waste time and energy trying to pick a pointless fight with me, or you can do your job and help us evacuate these people! Now, which is going to be, hm?"

"O–Open the gate!" Ferguson shouted at his men, unnerved by her show of strength. "Let's get these people out of here!"

"Excellent choice." Alex said, letting him down with the hint of a smirk playing on her lips, glad her bluff had worked. She didn't think it would go over too well if she had to taser the head of security because he refused to cooperate.

"!" There was a collective gasp from the crowd as the ground began to tremble, and the building shuddered behind them as the piles and stabilizing columns cracked beneath the foundation.

"Get back!" Alex shouted when cracks began appearing in the concrete around the base of the building, growing into deep fissures, as they scrambled to get away.

"What's happening_!_?" someone cried.

"Is the building collapsing?" asked another.

Alex's eyes widened as the tremors increased and the building and its foundation began to rise up from the ground.

"No way…" She breathed in disbelief as she and the stunned crowd below watched while the building was lifted into the sky several hundred feet above them, breaking pipes and snapping utility lines as it went.

"This… This is insane…!" Ferguson exclaimed, not wanting to believe his eyes. "That's impossible! There's no way something like that could really happen!"

"It can, and it is." Alex said seriously as she furrowed her brow, wondering how she was going to get back inside to help the others, because they obviously needed help if Hall was able to pull off stunts like this.

And that was when it caught her eye, a shiny helium balloon that said 'Happy Birthday'. It was tied around the wrist of one of the women who had come out, probably by some friendly coworkers just before the shit hit the fan. That gave Alex an idea. If she could decrease her own gravity enough, then theoretically, she could float up with the balloon.

"Sorry, but I need to borrow that for sec!" She said urgently, striding purposefully toward the birthday girl. Before the shell-shocked woman could protest, Alex wrapped the balloon's string around one hand, whipped out her pocket knife with the other, and cut it loose from the woman's wrist, focusing on making herself as light as possible.

"Hey—_!_?" The woman started to protest indignantly when she realized what had just happened, but the words died in her throat when, to her amazement, Alex's feet left the ground, and she began to float away with the balloon. The woman's jaw dropped as she gaped up at Alex, completely dumbstruck by the impossibility of what she was seeing. Stuff like that should only be physically possible in cartoons! The higher Alex ascended, the more people noticed, and she could hear cries of astonishment and concern from the crowd as she made her way up towards the suspended building.

–∞–

[Armor integrity compromised, sir.] JARVIS reported.

'Oh, great.' Tony thought. That was all he needed. It was hard enough for Tony with his suit to protect him. He couldn't imagine the pain Hawkeye must be in.

"Ahahaha!" Graviton laughed maniacally, thoroughly enjoying the power he held over the Avengers and the laws of physics. "You see, given time, there is nothing I can't do! I have become a living god!" He boasted arrogantly. Hawkeye and Ironman grit their teeth, frustrated with their inability to move. He had them pinned in place, like insects.

"That's funny." Alex remarked as she stepped into view, standing beside Hawkeye. She fixed Hall with a steely glare. "I don't remember God being such an asshole."

Graviton narrowed his eyes at her, but then a devious smirk snaked its way across his face. He was going to enjoy putting this brat in her place.

"Alex, what are you doing_!_? Get out of here!" Tony said urgently, voicing Clint's thoughts.

Why the hell was she just standing there? She might as well paint a huge target on herself!

"It's too late for that." Graviton said loftily, aiming his open hand at her as he willed her gravity to increase to 16_g_. Alex staggered forward and nearly fell, but she managed to counter the sudden change by decreasing her own gravity, catching herself just in time. Graviton frowned in confusion and disappointment. He tried again to crush her, but this time Alex didn't even stumble. "Why doesn't it work on you?" He demanded, narrowing his eyes at her with suspicion.

"Did you think you were the only one with the power to manipulate gravity?" Alex countered, taking a step forward. Now that she knew she could avoid being pinned like the others, she wasn't scared for herself, but she was still feeling nervous for them. She figured there had to be a reason they hadn't discovered his powers that whole time they had him at the hospital. He probably couldn't control his powers while unconscious. If that was the case, then it was the key to defeating him and freeing those trapped by his power before they were crushed.

"Be careful, Alex." She heard Tony's voice through her ear piece. "He's generating some kind of gravitational force field to use as a shield."

Alex smirked slightly after hearing that. In that case, she knew exactly what to do. Alex took off like a shot towards Hall.

"_!_?" Tony and Clint gasped in alarm. What the hell—

Hall made a grab for her, but she ducked and lunged at the desk behind him, jumping up and using it as a springboard to launch herself into the air high above Hall, decreasing her gravity to increase her altitude, as she did a flip and increased her gravity by 10,000% as she formed a dense gravitational shield around her own feet and brought them down on Hall with the same force of a Sprint missile. Her actions caught Hall off guard, and the resulting clash of the two shields successfully shattered his, sending out a pulse of gravitational energy as it dissipated. Alex landed on her feet, sliding back a couple of inches from the force of the wave, and braced herself as she drew her taser, preparing to use it to stun Hall.

Graviton immediately knocked it out of her hand by flinging a concentrated gravitational field at her.

"You little bitch! Do you seriously think you can defeat _me!_?" He snarled angrily at her. _"You're just an intern!"_

Alex narrowed her eyes dangerously at Hall and lunged at him again before he even had a chance to blink, raising her hand to strike him. As she brought her hand down in an open-hand blow, she generated a protective shield over it and increased the gravity behind her attack by 2500%, sending the arrogant prick flying across the room. Graviton's back slammed into the wall, punching a hole in the sheet rock. He was out cold.

"That's _super_ intern to you." Alex said coolly as his hold on the others broke almost instantly.

Tony and Clint sighed in relief when their gravity returned to normal, but their relief was short lived. The moment they were on their feet again, the building shook and began to fall.

"Whoa!" Alex flailed her arms a little when she momentarily lost her sense of balance with the sudden jolt.

"Oh, great—with Hall out of commission, there's nothing to stop this place from plummeting back down to earth!" Tony exclaimed, wishing they had thought this through a little more in hindsight.

"We need to get these people out of here. How many people can you carry at a time?" Clint asked him.

"I once saved about ten people by having them hold onto each other like a barrel of monkeys." Tony said. "But the landing was kind of rough. I had to drop them in water."

"There's a river about two or three miles south of here." Clint suggested helpfully. He had spotted it on their way in.

"Okay. Y'all take care of Hall and the others. I'll see what I can do about the building." Alex said, squaring her jaw as she kneeled down, and placed her hands flat on the floor and closed her eyes.

"Alex, you can't stay here!" Avani said urgently, leaving Aaron's side to try to talk some sense into her friend, but Ironman held a hand out to top her.

"She's right. Even if we get these people out, a building of this size crashing from this height will produce enough concussive force to seriously injure, and maybe even kill those waiting below us." Tony said seriously. "We have to let her try."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Alex told her, managing to sound calmer than she felt. "Just focus on looking after Aaron. He needs you more than me right now."

"Are you sure about this?" Clint asked Alex as Tony led Avani away and began prepping the rest of the remaining scientists for their escape.

"Yeah." She said, frowning slightly as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face. "So do me a favor and stop talking. I can't concentrate."

"Come on, Hawkeye!" Tony called, ready to leave with the human chain through the same skylight he had used earlier as an entrance. The unconscious Hall been restrained and duck-taped to Tony's back for the flight in a way that made the scientist look like a demented, overgrown baby. "We can come back for her after we drop the others."

Clint took one last look at Alex before taking his spot as a link in the chain, hoping they wouldn't end up regretting this decision, and Tony took off, pulling the rest of them up and out as the building continued to fall.

Meanwhile, Alex put everything she had into concentrating on stopping it. She used everything she knew about its size and structure and did her best to guess its approximate weight, speed, and velocity so she could calculate how many _g_'s she needed to compensate for.

Got it.

She could feel the building slowing down. Earth's gravitational pull on it was lessening.

It was a strain on her powers, but she could do this.

"!" Alex winced in pain when her head started to ache. It started out dull but rapidly grew into full-blown migraine. It was almost too much to bear. "Ngh—Aaaaaah!" Alex screamed in pain as shecontinued to hold on and did her best to focus on giving the building a gentle landing. She couldn't quit—not now. Her vision was getting dark. She was about to black out!

The building hit the ground with the force of roughly 1_g_. The force of the impact sent out a strong gust of wind that knocked a few people who were standing too close off of their feet. A great cheer went up from the crowd for the amazing feat they had just witnessed. They didn't know who saved them, but they were grateful, and their relief was tripled when they realized they could hear the approaching sirens of fire trucks and an ambulance, and Ironman and Hawkeye came flying back.

"Alex!" Clint called out, hitting the ground running as Tony dropped him off outside the building. He ran into the structurally compromised building to look for her without hesitation while Tony went back for the others, who were still in the river. Moving as quickly as he could while minding his surroundings, Clint made his way back to Alex. He found her lying in the middle of the floor, covered in plaster dust from the ceiling. "Hey, Alex. Alex!" Clint said, trying to wake her up as he knelt down beside her to check her vitals and search for injuries. He carefully rolled her over onto her side. His eyes widened when he saw that there was some vomit on the front of her shirt and the floor beneath her. That was never a good sign. Clint looked up at the sound of crunching glass, relieved to see that a couple of firemen had followed him in to search the building. "Medic!" He said urgently. "I need a medic in here!"


	7. Chapter 7

I own nothing but my OCs.

* * *

**_Chapter 7: Taking A Break  
_**

* * *

**Alice Hyde Medical Center,  
13.5 miles from the Reynoldston Research Facility**

Alex woke up with a dull pain in her neck. She winced slightly at the bright light and tried to bring her hand up to cover her eyes, only to find that she couldn't because someone had stuck an IV needle in it.

"Crap. I'm in a hospital, aren't I?" She groaned, closing her eyes.

"Yeah, and you're lucky to be, too. The doctors said you nearly gave yourself an aneurysm." Clint said, causing her to open them again and turn her head to see that he was sitting in a chair next to her bed. The doctors had also said there would be no permanent damage, but she had been out for a whole night and half a day as a result. "But you saved everyone, so good job." He added with a wry smile. He was glad Alex was all right. He was starting to get attached to this kid. She was comfortable to be around.

"Not too bad for a rookie." Tony agreed as he sauntered into the room. "You've become so popular we had to get you a private room. People kept trying to come in and watch you sleep, so we've been taking turns keeping your new fans out. Unless you want to get swarmed, I recommend you come back with us rather than staying here." Besides, after seeing what she could do during her fight with Hall, he wanted to run a few more tests.

"Wow, um, okay… thanks." Alex said, feeling a bit awkward. This was one of the reasons why she had never really aspired to be famous before. Once people knew about you, they never left you alone. "So, what happened to Avani and the others?" She asked, deciding to change the subject. "Are they okay?"

"They'll live." Clint said. "They're all fine for the most part, but your friend Aaron is practically in a full body cast, and Dr. Rousseau is in a halo brace for his neck injury. Avani was sitting with them the last time I checked."

"Can I see them?" She asked, concerned after hearing that they were in such bad shape.

"Sure, as soon as the doctor clears you for action again." Tony said. "Then we're doing lunch, because I'm starving, and the food here sucks. I'm thinking Arby's."

"Well, look who the cat dragged in." Aaron commented when Alex entered the room. "Took you long enough to come visit." He teased with a cheeky grin. "You know, you must be the first heroine in history to ever throw up on yourself." He added just in time for Clint hear as he followed her in.

"Nice to see your injuries haven't affected your warped sense of humor." Alex deadpanned, blushing slightly out of embarrassment. Didn't his mother ever teach him about tact?

"Oh, leave her alone." Avani scolded him with a light smack on the forehead. "She could have died!"

"Hey! I have enough brain damage already, thank you." Aaron retorted.

"That's your excuse for everything!" Avani huffed.

"Oh yeah, well you—"

"Just kiss already." Alex said a bit impatiently, interrupting their fight.

"W-What_!_?" They both exclaimed incredulously in shock, blushing so furiously they looked like a couple of tomatoes.

"You heard me." Alex told them firmly, crossing her arms. "Just do us all a favor and admit you like each other. I'm not going to be around to look after y'all forever, you know."

"Hey, keep it down, you crazy kids!" Dr. Rousseau grumbled drowsily from across the room. "Some of us are trying to sleep..."

Alex smiled wryly and left her friends to have a chat with her mentor.

"Hey, what did she mean by that?" Avani asked Clint, furrowing her brow slightly in concern. "Is she going somewhere?"

"You can't take Alex, because she's ours." Aaron said firmly. "Get your own."

Clint raised an eyebrow at them as Tony walked in to join them.

"Okay, the paperwork is done." Tony announced. "Let's blow this popsicle stand."

"I-I-I—It's Ironman!" Aaron stuttered excitedly. "Oh my God, it's him! W-What do I say_!_?" He asked Avani nervously.

"I hear 'hello' is popular." Avani stated dryly, resisting the urge to face-palm.

"H-Hello…" Aaron breathed, staring up at Tony as if he were in the presence of a god.

"Uh, hi." Tony said. Aaron continued to stare at him. Normally Tony welcomed open stares of admiration, but now it was starting to get awkward… and kind of creepy.

"You'll have to excuse Aaron." Avani said dismissively. "He was dropped on the head as a child."

"Yes, I see that." Tony agreed. This kid definitely had problems. "Where's Alex? Is she ready to go yet?" he asked Clint.

"Almost." Clint replied, nodding over at where Alex was talking with Rousseau.

"Yeah, so, no offense, but… I quit." Alex said apologetically, rubbing the back of her neck. "It's not that I'm not grateful to you for giving me the opportunity, but being an intern wasn't exactly what I thought it would be…"

"It's all right." Rousseau told Alex with a heavy sigh. "I was sort of expecting this after they told me you were with the Avengers." He still felt like it was a waste to lose her, though. "Are you planning on being a superhero now?"

"I don't know." Alex said thoughtfully. "To be honest, I've always considered myself more of a writer than a scientist. I think maybe I should focus on that for awhile. I've been getting angry texts from my publisher for going on such a long hiatus…" And creating new worlds and characters with words was a heck of a lot easier than trying to figure out how to open up a wormhole in real life…

"She's a writer?" Clint asked her friends curiously. That hadn't been on her résumé.

"She said she mostly does fan-fictions, but she's had one or two original stories published under a pen name." Avani explained.

"Is there anything she _can't_ do?" Tony asked a bit sardonically.

"Well, she draws like a kindergartener." Aaron quipped, finally regaining some of his wits.

"Hey, I heard that." Alex said, shooting her loud-mouth friend a look.

"Well, whatever you decide to do, I wish you luck." Rousseau told her. Alex turned back to her mentor and smiled.

"Thanks. I have a feeling I'll need it."

–∞–

**Jumpin' Jack's Drive-In,  
5 Schonowee Ave, Scotia, NY**

They ended up at Jumpin' Jack's Drive-in instead of Arby's, but Tony wasn't complaining the burgers were worth the wait, and it hadn't taken very long to get there in the Quinjet. That was another plus. The owners didn't seem to mind that they were taking up half of their parking lot.

"Not bad." Alex commented, nodding her head in approval at her half-eaten hamburger. It was a little crowded noisy, but the restaurant was in a nice area, and sitting at the rickety picnic table brought back childhood memories of an old mom 'n' pop's burger joint her parents used to take her to back in New Orleans.

"Not bad?" Clint asked, arching his brow. "This is probably the best burger I've ever tasted." He said, taking another bite. Hawkeye was practically inhaling his.

"Meh. I've had better." She said with a shrug. "You should try my grandpa's. The patties he makes are about three inches thick with a circumference that's roughly the size of my open hand."

"Sounds like a man after my own heart." Clint said with a smile.

"Then you'd better be careful, or you'll end up getting heart disease like he did." Alex warned.

"You know, this is the most I've ever heard you talk." Tony told Barton. "You guys get along really well."

"Yep. We're elevator buddies." Alex said, as if that should have explained everything.

"Elevator buddies?" Tony asked with a bemused smile.

"We rode the same elevator together." Clint clarified. "We never actually talked beyond 'hello' and 'goodbye' until a couple days ago, though."

"Oh, I see… So you two were in the elevator together… 'not talking'. I get it. Nice one." Tony said with a knowing smirk.

Alex nearly choked when she realized what he was implying.

"Mind—_koff_—out of the—_koff_—gutter, Stark." She said sternly in between coughs, turning red in the face. What kind of girl did he take her for? She suddenly put her hamburger down so she could wipe her hands and pull her hood up.

"You okay?" Clint asked, noting that she looked a little nervous. At least she had stopped choking.

"Just trying to keep a low profile." She replied lowly, trying to play it cool while keeping her face hidden in the shadow of her hood. "I noticed people have started taking pictures of us."

"You know, most people would be begging to take a picture with us." Tony reminded her.

"Yeah, I know. It's awesome that I'm sitting here with y'all and all, but I don't really want to be famous." She confessed. "I don't want people finding out who I am and where I live."

"Why not?" Tony asked. "I'm famous. Everyone knows who I am, and look at me. I'm awesome."

"Okaay, but didn't some terrorist blow up your mansion in Malibu last year?" Clint pointed out while he and Alex gave him nearly identical looks of skepticism.

"… All right, point taken." Tony said, deciding to admit defeat while he was still ahead, or behind. It depended how you looked at it.

"Speaking of terrorists," Alex said tentatively, "I know this is really late, but what did y'all do with Hall?"

"Wow, that is really late." Tony remarked, surprised it had taken her this long to ask.

"Normally we could've handed him over to S.H.I.E.L.D., but since that option is currently unavailable, we handed him over to the boys in blue." Clint said. "He's being kept in an induced coma for now."

"Good, because that guy is _way_ too dangerous awake. In my opinion, he's earned himself a crazy card. Laminated with a gold star and everything." Alex stated bluntly. "And to be honest, I'm not sure I could beat him again. I had the element of surprise on my side this time, but next time… who knows? The way Hall raised that building, I get the ominous feeling he was only tapping into a small percentage of his full potential…"

"Well, let's hope it never comes to that." Tony said, exchanging a glance with Clint. Hall going on another rampage was the last thing they needed, especially while S.H.I.E.L.D. was busy taking care of their dirty laundry. They really needed another place to hold super villains. Maybe he should make one.


	8. Chapter 8

I own nothing but my OCs.

* * *

_**Chapter 8: Aftermath  
**_

* * *

When they returned to the tower, Tony was waylaid by a very annoyed Pepper.

"Where have you been, and why didn't you answer your phone?" She demanded sternly. "I've been trying to get ahold of you for the past half hour!"

"You have?" Tony asked, surprised. He quickly checked his phone. "Oh. I must have forgotten to turn it back on after we left the hospital." He hadn't needed to use it since he called the previous evening to let her know he was okay but wouldn't be coming home right away so she wouldn't worry. But apparently that plan had just backfired on him. "Hey, before you get mad, it wasn't my fault. Those nurses were strict."

Pepper just stared at him for a moment. It looked to Alex and Clint like she was trying not to slap him. They had obviously caught her in the middle of a bad day.

"I don't care." She told him, deciding she didn't have time. She was late for a meeting, several meetings in fact. "Because half an hour ago, Fury flew out here in a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter and dropped off Natasha, some guy named Sam, and an unconscious Captain America, and now it's _your_ problem." She finished strongly, poking him in the chest before turning swiftly on her heels to march out the door.

"Wait, Fury's here?" Tony asked. "What happened to Cap?" His only answer was the sound of a door slamming. "What did I do this time?" He wondered aloud, because it was usually his fault whenever Pepper got mad like that.

"You forgot to cancel your date with her before you left to save the day." Bruce informed him as he stepped into the room, carrying the bowl of tabouleh he was planning on having for a snack. Like Clint and Alex, he had very wisely decided to keep his mouth shut rather than interrupt an upset Pepper. "She sat there, waiting for you for two hours, all by herself. People stared. And then, you failed to remember and apologize for it when you called her later that evening."

"Wow." Alex said, blinking, as she and Clint and glanced at Tony. He really screwed the pooch there. "I was gonna suggest flowers, but now I'm thinking you need something a little bigger to get you out of this…"

"Jewelry?" Tony asked.

"Um, I was thinking something a bit more romantic, like a nice candlelit dinner at home with roses and some kind of decadent chocolate dessert. And a massage." Alex replied. "But I guess jewelry works too."

"Jewelry is nice, but in my experience women tend to appreciate romantic gestures that require some actual effort on your part. I'd go with Alex's plan." Bruce advised him.

Clint nodded in agreement while taking some mental notes. Helping Tony patch things up with Pepper was great and all, but there were more pressing issues at the moment.

"Where are Fury and the others?" He asked. "Is S.H.I.E.L.D. still compromised?"

"Fury is gone. He's in the wind." Natasha stated calmly with an even voice as she put her hand on the back of the sofa and pulled herself up into a sitting position, revealing that she had been laying on it the entire time. "S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't exist anymore."

"What?" Clint asked, taken aback.

"Cap and I discovered that S.H.I.E.L.D. was compromised by HYDRA a long time ago." Natasha explained. She didn't bother to sensor her words in front of the others. There was no point since everything had already been dumped onto the internet for the whole world to see. She wouldn't be surprised to see it on the news sometime tomorrow. "Their members have been hiding in our ranks and using an algorithm created by Arnim Zola to manipulate certain events and keep the world in chaos, as well as to eliminate any possible threats to HYDRA itself. They tried to hijack project Insight."

"But you stopped them." Clint said, eyeing his fellow agent and friend carefully while he processed what she had just told him. An unreadable expression passed over Natasha's face, but for a moment, Clint thought he might have seen fear or insecurity in her eyes. That worried him more than anything. Nat was always in control.

"Yes, but not without a price." She said, looking down. "In order to expose HYDRA and cut them off, we had to expose everything about S.H.I.E.L.D. too. It's already been on the net for several hours. The information has probably gone viral by now. The whole world knows about us, about our pasts…" She raised her head again to look him in the eyes. "_Everything_."

Clint bowed his head. No wonder Natasha was upset. She was very secretive and very sensitive when it came to her past. And he didn't blame her, considering some of the things he knew she had been made to do before defecting from Russia and joining S.H.I.E.L.D. And now they find out that this whole time they were being controlled by the very enemy they had been formed to crush? How much of their work was actually done for the good of S.H.I.E.L.D. and how much was done for HYDRA's benefit? It was enough to mess with anyone's head. As confused, pissed, and uncertain about the future Clint was feeling, he knew it had to be at least ten times worse for Natasha.

"Guys… can you give us a moment?" Clint asked.

"Yeah, sure." Tony said after exchanging a glance with the others. They could tell from the looks on their faces that the two agents had a lot to talk about. After all, their lives had just been turned upside down. Everyone in the room knew how that felt. Alex paused briefly to glance back at them, concerned, but she followed the science bros out of the room without any protest, even though she was really curious about what was going on between the two agents.

Clint waited a little longer to make sure they were out of earshot before speaking again.

"… What are you going to do?" He asked Natasha, concerned. "If there's anything I can—"

"Thanks, but it's all right, Clint. I don't need you to save me this time." Natasha stated resolutely. "This is something I have to do for myself. I'm tired of running anyway."

–∞–

"So… this might sound like a stupid question, but what are 'HYDRA' and 'Project Insight'?" Alex asked curiously as they walked through the halls, heading to check on Captain America and his new friend.

Tony and Bruce exchanged a glance. Oh, that's right. They had almost forgotten that most people didn't actually know about HYDRA, since when Cap fought them during WWII, they were a secret Nazi deep science division, and they sort of stayed a military secret even after the war ended. The only reason Tony and Bruce knew about HYDRA was because of Tony's involvement with S.H.I.E.L.D. as their consultant (and the last time he tried to hack their data), and Bruce's research on Captain America while he was working on Project Rebirth.

"Uh, think evil Nazi scientists with a taste for world domination." Tony told her.

"Okay. Gonna need a more detailed explanation than that, but I'll go along with that for now. What about Project Insight?" She asked.

"No idea." Bruce responded with a shake of his head.

"Me neither, but I bet it involves a helicarrier somehow." Tony said thoughtfully. "After all the trouble I went through to make so many helpful suggestions on how to improve their design, it'd be insulting if they didn't use them."

"It sounds to me like whatever it was, it was almost used by HYDRA to take over the world." Alex pointed out as they came to a stop in front of a room that had the insignia of Captain America's shield on it.

"… I just supplied the reactor and a better turbine design." Tony said quickly, going on ahead without them to find a computer. "I have declassified S.H.I.E.L.D. files to read."

Bruce just smiled wryly and shook his head.

"Well, this is where I get off." He said. "You can either come in with me or follow Tony."

"I don't see why I can't do both." Alex said with a grin. It was exciting to think about who was on the other side of that door. She had grown up hearing stories about the captain from her grandpa.

"All right. Are you ready to meet a living legend?" Bruce asked good-naturedly. Her smile was contagious.

"Definitely."

Bruce opened the door to reveal a sleeping Captain America and another man conked out in the chair next to his bed. They both looked like they had been through the wringer.

"On second thought, maybe we should let them sleep…" Alex whispered. "They look like they could use it."

"Agreed." Bruce said with a wry smile. He could tell from there everything was in order from the readings on the EKG hooked up to Cap. He was fine physically. What he really needed now, after everything he had been through, was rest.

"I see you've already found it." Bruce remarked as they entered Tony's lab. The S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA insignias really stood out against all of the code and text.

"It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, actually." Tony admitted. "Agent Romanoff was right, most of this stuff has gone viral already. And you know what else has gone viral?" he asked, pausing to glance up at them. "Alex."

"Me?" Alex asked, taken aback.

"Yep. Some genius got the bright idea to the leak footage of you putting the smack down on 'Graviton' onto the internet." Tony explained as Clint and Natasha joined them. "Looks like your secret is out."

"What? How?" Clint asked, furrowing his brow. He was sure he had confiscated all of that. Unless one of Hall's hostages had pulled their cell out and started recording the fight without them seeing… To be fair, he was a little preoccupied with trying not to be crushed to death at the time.

"I don't know," Tony said, "but she's become an internet phenomenon with that little bitch slap of doom, and her 'super intern' line. Reports are coming in all over the country of interns quoting her while standing up to their bosses and accomplishing things. She's inspired them to rise up in some sort of insurrection. They're calling it the 'Internection'."

"Oh, well that's just fabulous." Alex deadpanned, chagrined that her identity as a superhero had been exposed on her first day.

"Meanwhile, you two were just laying on the floor like a couple of bad pennies." Natasha commented while looking down at the screen of her phone. A quick search had revealed some stills that showed Tony and Clint lying rather uselessly on the floor in the background.

"He was using our own gravity against us." Clint deadpanned in their defense. He'd like to see _her_ find a way out of that one.

"Yeah, not really something we could avoid." Tony added. "The only reason Alex could still move is because she has the same powers as him… almost."

"Yeah, apparently I'll get an aneurysm if I try to use my powers on something that big." Alex explained when Natasha glanced at her. "I can't believe I was found out before I even had a chance to pick a name… Ugh, my mom's gonna _freak_ when she finds out!"

"Your greatest concern is what your mother will think? How old are you?" Natasha asked.

"24." Alex replied with a straight face. "I know I'm old enough to do what I want, and I usually do, but she always gives me hell for it first if she thinks it's 'too dangerous'. She became really overprotective after my dad died. And she's ex-army."

"Really?" Tony asked. "Is that where you learned to fight, because for someone who claims to have had no training, you kicked some serious ass."

"I was wondering about that myself." Clint added as they all stared at her expectantly.

"My mom only served a couple of years to pay for college so she could get a nursing degree. And I meant it when I said I didn't have any formal training in fighting. Most of what I did back there was a combination of my understanding of physics, years of doing gymnastics, and growing up watching too many action movies." Alex explained honestly.

They all just stared at her for a moment. So, basically, she had just been making it up as she went along? This kid definitely had potential…

"There's no such thing as too many action movies." Clint stated matter-of-factly, breaking the silence.

Yeah, who doesn't love a good action movie?" Tony added.

Natasha gave a noncommittal shrug. She didn't really see the point in watching action movies when they pretty much lived in one.

Bruce seemed to share her feelings on this subject. He had to be careful when watching action movies nowadays. If he got too excited, well… then the Other Guy would come out and start making an action movie of his own in time for the six o'clock news.

Alex, however, was a different story.

"Right_!_?" She exclaimed, suddenly brightening upon discovering two more kindred spirits. Her smile lit up her whole face. "I grew up watching scifi and action movies. They were practically my bread and butter."

"Wow. That explains so much." Bruce remarked.

"I'm going to take that as a compliment." Alex decided pragmatically.


	9. Chapter 9

I own nothing but my OCs.

* * *

_**Chapter 9: Secrets and Revelations**_

* * *

"What's that?" Alex asked suddenly, pointing to one of the screens Tony was looking at. The two of them had been pouring over the files from S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA. Tony because he wanted to know what his last attempt to hack into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.S files had missed, and Alex because she wanted to know more about the two mysterious organizations. After they discovered Phil was still alive (he had technically only been dead for about eight seconds) and Fury had been keeping it a secret after using it to guilt trip them into cooperating, Bruce had decided it would be safer for everyone if Tony just gave him the cliff notes since he tended to get worked up about being lied to and went off to do some yoga.

"Oh, that… It's a list of assassinations carried out by HYDRA through the years." Tony said, glancing back at it. His dad's name was on it, but then again he had already known his dad was one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D., so it made sense for HYDRA to target him. Still pissed him off though. HYDRA was definitely on his hit list now.

"But… my dad's name is on it…" She said, pointing to the name below his father's: Dr. Henry A. Starr.

"That's your old man?" Tony asked, glancing at her. He saw the look of hurt confusion in her eyes and quickly pulled up the file. They were getting to the bottom of this now.

Alex gasped and covered her mouth when she saw the data in the file. The random looters who shot her dad? They weren't random after all. Her dad used to treat S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were wounded in suspicious ways while on assignments in that region of the country. He had saved the lives of numerous agents while keeping too many unwanted questions from being asked. And he had been close to finding a cure for cancer, closer than anyone had ever been before. That was why HYDRA had killed him, to snuff out that hope, to keep the world in chaos.

"… Can you print these out for me? Just the pictures where he's smiling." She asked, surprising Tony. "We don't have many left of him."

"Yeah, sure. No problem." Tony said sympathetically. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine." She said, clenching her fists at her side. She took a deep breath and exhaled, relaxing her body as she let go of some of the anger that was beginning to well up inside of her. Her dad wouldn't want her to spend the rest of her life angry, and it felt like she would be letting the people who took him from her win if she did. "But you won't be if you don't get ready to make things right with Pepper before she gets home."

"And the scary part is you're not wrong about that." Tony agreed, deciding he'd better start tackling that. Thankfully, they were in New York, where you could get virtually anything delivered straight to your door, even without a bribe.

–∞–

Pepper was the first to wake the next morning… or, at least she thought she was the first, until she realized she could smell bacon cooking.

No way, was Tony following up last night's dinner for two by cooking her breakfast?

That was just too good to be true. Pepper turned her head to glance over at Tony's side of the bed and saw that it really was. He was still lying next to her. Well, that was to be expected, she guessed, but if it wasn't Tony cooking, then who was it. She decided to sit up and pull on her slippers and robe to take a look.

"Mm? Is that bacon?" Tony asked sleepily, awoken by the combination of Pepper's movements and the smell of bacon.

"That's what it smells like." Pepper quipped, inhaling deeply. Now she could smell the heavenly aroma of fresh coffee. "Did you retain that chef from last night for breakfast?"

"Uh, no, but that would have been a good idea." Tony groaned as he pulled himself up into a sitting position, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He glanced at the clock. "What the? It's only six? Who in their right mind gets up that early?"

"Me. And most business professionals for that matter." Pepper said pointedly.

"Let's go see who our mystery chef is." Tony said as he hopped out of bed, quickly changing the subject. It sounded like Pepper might be hinting she had some work for him to do, but he wasn't ready to think about that yet.

"Whoa." Tony said when they walked into the shared kitchen. The breakfast bar was loaded with food, from fresh fruit cut in different shapes to grits, hashbrowns, muffins, croissants, doughnuts, and waffles. The other counters were lined with pies and cookies of various assortments. In the middle of it all was Alex, who was scrambling some eggs in a frying pan while waiting for the coffee to finish brewing.

"This… This is amazing." Pepper said, taken aback. "Did you do all of this?" She asked Alex. She was surprised there were any eggs left to scramble after all that baking.

"Yep." Alex responded nonchalantly, sliding the cooked eggs into a serving dish. "Cooking and baking helps me calm down and think when I start having racing thoughts."

"When did you have time to do all of this?" Tony asked, grabbing a piece of bacon. "What ungodly time did you wake up at?"

"Who says I slept?" Alex retorted, turning around and crossing the room to put the eggs on the breakfast bar. Now that she was facing them, they could see traces of dark circles forming under her eyes. After Tony left to romance Pepper, she had stayed in the lab to keep reading up on HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. There was some pretty disturbing stuff in there, including how she, Tony, Bruce, Clint, the rest of the Avengers, and hundreds of other people had been on HYDRA's hit list. If Natasha, Cap, and their new friend hadn't ruined their plan to hijack Project Insight, they'd all probably be dead right now. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I sat up and thought about my dad and HYDRA, and how I was on their list too. And I came to the realization that not only am I already on their radar, but they'll probably se me as even more of a threat now that I have these powers… I don't think they'll stop targeting me." She said thoughtfully, staring at the eggs as if the held the secrets to the universe. "So now I think it may actually be for the best if everyone knows I'm an Avenger. If I'm a visible public figure, they'll know where I am and what I'm capable of. They won't have to go through my family and friends to get to me, because they'll know I'll be right here. If giving up my privacy and painting a target on myself is what it takes to protect the people I care about, then so be it. As far as I'm concerned, HYDRA just declared war, so I might as well bring the fight to them. My dad always said the best defense is a good offense." She finished, glancing up at them with a firm look of resolve and determination in her eyes.

Tony just stared at her for a moment. When he woke up this morning, he definitely hadn't been expecting for things to get this heavy before he even had a chance to drink his coffee. But he knew how she felt. He could understand wanting a little payback and the need to protect the safety of the people you cared about.

"In that case, welcome to the team." He said, holding his hand out to Alex.

"Thanks." She said, shaking it.

"Actually, I was holding my hand out for a cup of coffee, but whatever." He remarked with a shrug.

"Well, anyway, it's good you two have worked that out." Pepper said with a wry smile. "You can announce it during the press conference."

Tony and Alex furrowed their brows slightly in confusion.

"What press conference?" He asked.

"The one you're going to give later today to explain what happened at the Reynoldston Research Facility." Pepper stated matter-of-factly. She had scheduled it the previous day, while she was still mad at him.

"I just saved the day. Can't I take a break?" Tony asked.

"No." Pepper said bluntly with a sweet smile, popping a piece of pineapple into her mouth.

"Whoever's cooking bacon, I hope you made enough for every…one…" Clint said as he walked into the room, trailing off when he saw the piles of food. His eyes widened. "Whoa."

"Yeah, don't worry. There's more than enough to go around." Tony remarked as Natasha and Bruce also joined them.

"Wow." Bruce said, impressed. "She can control gravity, _and_ she cooks."

"The complete package." Natasha commented

"We are definitely keeping her." Clint said, grabbing an empty plate to fill without hesitation.

Alex smiled wryly and raised an eyebrow at that. Good thing she had already decided to stay, because it sounded like he wasn't about to let her leave any time soon.

"You guys have any aspirin?" Sam asked drowsily as he and Cap strolled in, rubbing his aching shoulder. All the action of the previous day had finally caught up with him. He felt sore all over.

"Wow, you really are good." Natasha told Alex. "No matter what I did to Cap, he refused to wake up, and now he's out of bed and walking around of his own volition."

"It's the power of bacon." Alex said sagely. "No man can resist it."

"You okay, old man?" Tony asked Cap as the old soldier pulled out a chair and sat down at the table, while Pepper gave poor Sam some aspirin. Natasha had only given them the cliff notes version of what had happened during their little misadventure.

"No." Steve answered honestly with a heavy sigh, holding his head in his hands. Sam and Natasha exchanged a knowing glance. He was obviously still worried about Bucky.

"Care to elaborate on that?" Tony pressed.

"Not really." Steve said bluntly, not quite in the mood to explain everything to someone who hadn't been there yet. It was still too fresh. He looked up when Alex set a plate loaded with waffles, eggs, and bacon in front of him. "Who are you?" He asked, furrowing his brow slightly in confusion. He couldn't remember having ever met this girl before.

"Alex Starr." She introduced herself, holding out her hand to shake his. "It's an honor to meet you, sir. Sorry it's not under better circumstances."

"Whoa, wait. Why does he get 'it's an honor'?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. "You didn't say that when you met us."

"Because he's _Captain America_." Alex stated matter-of-factly. "No offense to any of y'all, but I grew up hearing about him. It was mainly because of him that my grandpa was inspired to join the army during the war, and if he hadn't done that, then he wouldn't have met my grandma, who was the nurse who patched him up after he got wounded. So, basically, I owe my existence to him."

"Really? Wow." Clint said. That certainly was… special.

"I guess it really is a small world after all." Bruce remarked.

"Does that mean we also owe Cap for this breakfast?" Tony asked.

"Wait, hold on." Steve said, raising his hands. "It's nice to meet you too, Miss Starr, but what I really meant was: what are you doing here?"

"Don't worry, it's cool, Cap." Tony said carelessly. "She's one of us."

"Us?" Steve asked, raising an eyebrow.

"An Avenger." Tony clarified. "She kind of has superpowers."

"What kind?" Sam asked with interest.

"She can manipulate her own gravity," Bruce explained, "as well as the gravity of anything she touches."

"She helped us take down a super villain with similar powers yesterday." Clint added.

Natasha raised an eyebrow. From the clips of their fight with Graviton that were on the net, it looked like Alex had done more than just 'help'. She had pretty much taken him out single-handedly.

"Oh." Steve said simply. Okay, then.

"So, if you want to go after your friend… It's all right." Alex told him. She could tell this was really important to him. "I'll help hold down the fort while you're gone."

"Hold on, Alex. I don't exactly feel comfortable letting Cap go off alone after someone who tried to kill him." Tony said, concerned.

"He also saved me." Steve argued determinedly. "I know Bucky's still in there."

"And he won't be alone." Sam added, causing everyone to glance at him. "I've stuck with you this long, Cap. I might as well see it through all the way."

"Thanks, Sam." Steve said gratefully, feeling a little relieved to know he some support.

"Oh, all right." Tony said, giving in with a roll of his eyes. "But you better let me know if you need anything."

"Well, some more information on Bucky's past as the 'Winter Soldier' would help." Steve said.

"Leave that to me." Natasha said. She had a feeling she knew just where to find it.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: This will be the last chapter for this fic, but I am planning a sequel/continuation. Please let me know if you are interested.

I own nothing but OCs.

* * *

**_Chapter 10: The New Avenger_**

* * *

Clint was performing some standard maintenance checks on his equipment while watching TV in the lounge. He glanced up at the clock. Right about now, Nat should be meeting up with Cap and Sam to hand off the file she had gone to 'procure' for them earlier. It was also about time for the press conference to begin.

"So, what are you planning on calling yourself, anyway?" Tony asked Alex as they entered the room, following Pepper out. "Are we going with 'Super Intern'?"

"Well, technically I'm not an intern anymore, so how about something that has more to do with my powers instead." Alex suggested. She didn't want to be labeled as an intern for the rest of her life.

"Like what? 'Gravity Girl'?"

"What 'girl'? I'm already 24." Alex reminded him with a dubious expression. "How about 'G' instead? It's short, catchy, and easy to remember."

"Sounds gangster." Tony commented.

"Well, it's short for 'Gravity', but if we just call me 'Gravity', then people might confuse me for either the natural force of gravity or that Sandra Bullock movie." Alex pointed out with a shrug.

"Point taken." Tony said. "All right, 'G' it is, then." He said decisively as they stepped into the elevator, and the doors closed behind them.

Clint waited a few minutes to give them time to reach the first floor before switching the TV over to one of the local news channels, which was broadcasting live, right outside the tower. He watched Pepper come out and step up onto the podium they had set up. She briefly outlined the purpose of the conference and introduced Tony, who hopped up on the stage with his usual flare and began explaining the events leading up to their confrontation with Hall from their perspective. Clint went back to fine-tuning his gear while he listened. Tony never mentioned Alex by name out of respect for the remaining shreds of privacy she had left after having her face plastered all over the internet.

"In light of her role in assisting us with taking down a very dangerous criminal, we have invited the 'Super Intern', as she's become known on the net, to join the Avengers. And she has graciously accepted." Tony concluded. "So, any questions?"

As expected, hands flew up all around. The reporters Pepper and Tony called on asked the usual questions, that is, until they reached Christine Everhart.

"Mr. Stark, I have information from a certain source that this mysterious new addition to the Avengers team is none other than Alexandra Starr, a graduate from Louisiana Tech. Is there any truth to this allegation?" The intrepid reporter asked.

Clint paused and glanced up at the screen again just in time to see Tony's eyebrows fly up in surprise.

"Wow, really?" Tony asked sardonically. "All that time I spent carefully avoiding her name, did it never occur to you that maybe I was doing it for a reason?"

"It's all right, Tony." Alex said, finally coming out and stepping into view, joining Tony by the podium. This was why she had come down with them. She knew this was bound to happen sooner or later. "Nothing stays secret for long once it hits the internet." She explained, pausing for a moment. 'I am Alex Starr. I had been hoping to prolong completely exposing myself as long as possible in order to protect my family's safety and privacy, but I can see now that's just not going to happen, so let me say this: mess with me or any of the people I care about, and I will mess you up." She promised firmly looking the camera dead in the eye .

Clint raised an eyebrow. A wry smile played upon his lips.

Look out New York, there's a new hero in town.

He watched as her expression softened and she straightened up a little.

"So, in conclusion, my name is Alex Starr, and I'm an Avenger." Alex finished confidently with a slight smirk on her lips. "Call me G."


End file.
